


Tailored Love

by infinitestarsintheskye



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, MINOR Will/Jemma, OH THE UST YOU WILL SEE, Slow Burn, Swearing, Unresolved Sexual Tension, despite the tags, don't bottle up your feelings kids, how fitz has not canonically said the f word i have no idea, panic attack trigger warning, rom com AU, runaway bride au, this fic is actually really cute i promise, unhealthy emotional coping mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25446847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitestarsintheskye/pseuds/infinitestarsintheskye
Summary: Jemma Simmons has it all! Her dream job, a beautiful apartment in the city and a fiance that loves her more than anything! The only thing she doesn’t have is a wedding dress perfect enough for her big day! After a suggestion from her best friend Daisy, Jemma finds herself in the most charming little bridal shop, but will she end up finding more than just a dress?Updates Every Wednesday!
Relationships: Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Will Daniels/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 55
Kudos: 83





	1. The Perfect Dress

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S HERE!!! IT’S HERE!!! IT IS FINALLY HERE. The fic I have been teasing for nearly three months is HERE!!!! I have loved every second of writing this fic, it has honestly been the most fun, and at times the most challenging piece of fiction I have ever written. This idea actually came from an early coronavirus stress dream that I had, and the next day I just woke up and went: “What if I made it FitzSimmons?” and tada this fic was born. I did not mean for it to be this long, I promise, it just kind of happened. Anyway as usual I will stop with the rambling, and let you get on with the reading!
> 
> This fic DOES have a depiction of a panic attack, not in this chapter but in the third chapter. I wanted to add that trigger warning on here now so that it doesn’t come as a shock or a surprise to anyone, the last thing I would want to do is trigger or upset anyone so this warning will be put on EVERY chapter and then in the biggest neon signs I can get on the actual chapter itself.

The past year of Jemma Simmons’s life had been an utter whirlwind! She’d finished her PhD in BioChemistry, had been hired to her dream lab right after graduation and to top it all off, her loving boyfriend of the past two years had proposed. Will was a lawyer, well established, good looking, and most importantly he made Jemma laugh. They’d met at university, Jemma’s transfer to the states to complete her PhD had taken her to Harvard, and on her very first day, had found herself very lost in what turned out to be the law buildings. Will had very graciously and gentlemanly showed her the correct way to her destination, and upon leading her there had asked her out for a drink. Jemma had been taken aback. Men in England were never usually this forward. The last boyfriend she’d had back there had danced around her for three months before finally asking her out. Then again, Milton hadn’t been the most intelligent of men. Will’s forward nature appealed to her however, and she had accepted. He was good for her, not letting her get too serious or too entirely wrapped up in her work. He did however have a flaw. He didn’t understand Jemma’s work at all. She kept telling herself that this didn’t matter, that most couples would be in different careers, not understanding what it was exactly that the other did. Besides, she decided it was good that she didn’t bring her work home with her as much, but she did sometimes lament not having someone who understood the breakthrough she’d thought of as she was idly cooking dinner. But she loved Will, and he loved her, and she’d been beyond thrilled when he’d proposed. He’d gotten down on one knee at her graduation party, in front of all her friends and family. She’d secretly wished that it hadn’t been so public but, that’s just how these things were done.

Naturally Jemma had started planning the wedding the day after they had gotten engaged. With six months to go until the big day, everything was sorted, the venue, the seating charts, the flowers, everything was done, except from her dress. She knew it was because she was too fussy, that she knew exactly what she wanted. Nothing too froofy and big, nothing too revealing, she wanted to keep it classy, and besides showing off skin wasn’t exactly her style. She didn’t want anything decked out in sparkles or crystals, and definitely nothing that clapped itself to her body like a wetsuit. She didn’t think she’d be able to walk in a tight fishtail gown, but a ballgown definitely strayed into froofy territory. She had been in what must have been every single wedding dress shop in the city and had found nothing that jumped out at her, nothing that she could see herself marrying Will in. She’d lamented all this to her friend Daisy, who’d done the whole whirlwind marriage thing to her now, husband Lincoln just before Jemma had gotten engaged.

“Have you tried that little boutique on South Shield Street? It’s so totally cute! It’s run by this adorable little Scottish lady and she was so nice and helpful. She actually sent me to the store where I finally got my dress, after I didn’t find anything there. Just really cared that I got the perfect thing, rather than making a sale.” Daisy had suggested over coffee one day.

And that’s how Jemma had found herself on South Shield Street, determination in her eyes and marched into the cute little shop: ‘Fitz Bridal Boutique’. She pushed open the door, a little bell sounded her arrival, and she looked around. It was the most beautiful little place. Dresses of every style you could possibly imagine were hung up tastefully around the room in racks. Fresh flowers adorned the place, making it seem ethereal, whilst giving it a light and pleasant scent. When Jemma entered there was nobody behind the small desk that sat at the front of the door, nor anyone to be seen at all for that matter. She began browsing anyway, waiting for one of the assistants, or even for the fabled Scottish woman who Daisy had so raved about. Jemma had thumbed her way through three dresses when she heard a loud clatter and a male voice shouting from the back room.

“FUCK. Oh for fuck’s sake. MUUUUUUUMM. MUUUUUM!! PLEASE STOP LEAVING THE MANNEQUINS YOU WANT FIXED RIGHT BY THE DOOR. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK ONE OF THOSE CREEPY BASTARDS HAS JUMPED ME.” The voice shouted in a thick Scottish brogue.

Jemma smiled bemusedly, peering behind the desk, trying to see the cause of all this commotion. And then he appeared. A disgruntled looking young man grumbled his way out of the back room, a mannequin shoved under his arm. He almost dropped the mannequin when he realised he was not alone.

“I’m so sorry! I thought mum had closed for lunch! You didn’t happen to hear any of that did you?” He asked, raking his free hand through his sandy curls.

“I did unfortunately. You create quite the atmosphere Mr…?”

“Fitz. Leo. But I’m just Fitz. This is my mum’s place. I just help out. Fix things. Watch the place if she needs to run an errand. I can go grab her if you want.” Fitz blubbered very quickly, juggling the mannequin that was still propped under his arm.

“Yes please.” Jemma smiled.

Fitz looked at her, with what she took to be confusion, mixed with distain, before fumbling with his mannequin again, and stumbling into the back room. Jemma heard him shout a couple more times, before a small, pleasant looking woman appeared in the doorway, smiling but rather harassed looking.

“Hello dear! I’m Leanna Fitz, I own the place and that hoodlum you just met is my son Leopold. I must apologise for my son. He’s back from MIT for a bit before he goes away to start a job in the city and I worry all that time in a lab has made him forget how to interact with other people.”

“It’s quite alright! I just finished my PhD this last year, in Biochemistry, so I can empathise with the lack of socialisation it affords.” Jemma replied with a smile.

“Ah well. I’m glad he’s not the only one! Now, tell me all about your big day, and what exactly it is that you’re after my dear!” Leanna exclaimed excitedly.

Jemma proceeded to go into raptures about every aspect of her wedding, the theme, the colour scheme, the flowers, right down to the colour of the groomsmen’s shoes. Leanna furrowed her brow.

“That’s all very well dear, it sounds like it’s going to be a beautiful wedding, but it doesn’t tell me much about you or what you want in a dress, except of course that you are exceptionally organised.” Leanna said kindly.

Jemma frowned slightly.

“So you’ve told me about your budget, let me worry about that for now my dear, and you just tell me what it is that you’d like in a dress.”

“That’s the problem really. I don’t really know. I feel like I’ve tried on every single dress in the city and not found anything that feels right.” Jemma confessed nervously.

This time it was Leanna’s turn to frown. This wasn’t the first time she’d had a bride who had had this problem, and every single one had ended up the same way. However this wasn’t exactly Leanna’s place to say so, so she fixed a smile on her face and resolved to help her customer.

“Right then, well why don’t you start by telling me what you don’t want.” Leanna replied comfortingly.

“Well I’ve never been a fan of big froofy ballgowns or anything, nothing too flashy or showy, I’m quite a practical person really, in all aspects of my life.” Jemma started.

“I suppose that rules out glitter and sparkles and frills of any description then.” Leanna said with a smile.

Jemma wrinkled her nose.

“Oh yes, I’m not sure how comfortable I would be in big sparkly disco ball dress.” Jemma laughed.

“What are your feelings about lace then?”

“Lace would be lovely!”

“Anything else that would be a hard no from you then dear?” Leanna asked, her eyes already flitting around her little shop.

“Big sleeves. I’m not sure I want to feel like a bat or like something out of a big costume drama on my wedding day.” Jemma finished with a smile.

“Alrighty then. I can think of a few dresses that might suit you well. Just give me five minutes and I’ll pull some out and you can start trying some on if you like! Feel free to have a look around and pull some out too if you fancy. Just hand any you pick out off to Leopold, he knows what to do, or he should by now!” Leanna exclaimed happily, before bustling off to rake through her many racks of dresses.

Jemma turned to the rack nearest to her and began thumbing through the dresses, each time she moved onto a new dress, she felt a kind of nervous jolt in her stomach, just waiting for one of them to jump out at her. Before any of them did however, she heard a small cough behind her and turned to see the young man who had greeted her so uniquely. His hands were now mannequin-less and he wore a sheepish look on his face as he swung back and forward on his feet.

“Hi. Mum said I was to give you a hand if you needed it.” He said timidly.

“Yes, she mentioned! I haven’t quite found anything yet unfortunately.” Jemma replied, trying to sound chipper.

“Your mum mentioned you were at MIT??” Jemma asked conversationally, turning back to her rack of dresses.

“Um, yes just finished up my PhD i-in engineering.” Fitz replied nervously.

Jemma swivelled around to look at him properly, studying his face thoroughly for the first time. He was fairly young to have finished his PhD, she thought as she took in his smooth features, the youthful look about his bright sea blue eyes, his scruffy facial hair and the mop of sandy blonde curls that sprung from the top of his head.

“If you don’t mind my asking, but how old are you? It’s just you look quite young…” Jemma started.

“…quite young to have finished my PhD, yeah I get that a lot.” Fitz finished with a smile.

“I’m twenty-two, by the way. I went to uni early, I was bored in high school, the work was too easy for me. Finished up my undergrad by seventeen and then MIT came knocking and now here I am.”

Jemma gaped at him for a moment.

“I heard you saying to mum that you had a PhD too, and you don’t look much older than I do, if you don’t mind my saying so.” Fitz continued conversationally, his cheeks flushing slightly red.

“Yes. I’m the same age as you actually, I just finished up too, similar story to you really. Bored in high school, then Cambridge came knocking, then Harvard. I’m working for SHIELD Labs in the city now. How have I never heard of you?” Jemma asked with a smile.

“Another prodigy the exact same age as me, it almost seems silly we’ve never met before! I should probably introduce myself properly, I’m Dr Jemma Simmons!” She exclaimed, unable to keep the delight from her voice, holding out her hand.

Fitz’s jaw dropped and he stared at her for a second before taking her hand in his own and shaking it.

“Jemma Simmons! I have heard of you! Your paper on dendrotoxins inspired part of my PhD thesis. I started to come up with possible applications and came up with a model for a non-lethal weapon with bullets that would break up under the subcutaneous…”

“…The subcutaneous tissue, that’s brilliant!” Jemma finished.

They both stared at the other for a moment in excitement and wonder, before realising that they were still holding hands, and dropping them quickly.

“I didn’t know you were my age. I thought you were, you know, the usual age of people who go for their PhD’s.” Fitz mumbled, still in some apparent disbelief.

Jemma laughed.

“I would love to see your designs sometime! Where was it that your mum mentioned you were going to be working?” She asked excitedly.

“For Stark Industries. I had an offer from your place, from SHIELD Labs I mean, but Stark was very persistent. They wouldn’t accept no and kept bumping up their offer every time I did. Apparently, that’s what happens when Tony Stark himself really really wants you.” Fitz said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully! Stark is one of the top firms in the world! It’s really something that they wanted you that much! I’m almost jealous, I’d love to have a look around their facilities.” Jemma sighed.

“I-I mean I’m sure when I’ve settled in, I might be able to sneak you in, give you a tour of the place. I mean if you wanted to.” Fitz stuttered.

Jemma’s face lit up.

“Really?! That would be wonderf-“

“Now my dear, I’ve hung up a few things I think you’ll like in the dressing room, if you’d like to go and take a look? Did anything catch your eye out here?” Leanna Fitz interrupted, appearing as if from nowhere. 

Both Jemma and Fitz whipped their heads round to look at her, and for some reason, Jemma felt as if she’d been caught doing something very wrong indeed, her stomach lurching unpleasantly as she quickly registered Leanna’s presence.

“I didn’t actually. We got a bit caught up talking shop, turns out we have quite a bit in common!” Jemma said, her eyes flitting from Leanna to Fitz before fixing a smile on her face, despite the fact that her stomach currently felt like a washing machine on a fast spin.

Leanna looked from Jemma, to her son who now wore a guilty looking look on his face, before plastering a smile on her own face and turning back to Jemma.

“That’s quite alright dear! I think I pulled enough out to start giving you some ideas. As for my son, he’ll be getting a talking to later about his skills in sales.” Leanna said with a grin.

“Oh no! Don’t blame him please! I was the one who started the conversation!” Jemma insisted.

“I’m only teasing dear. Leo already knows what I think of his sales pitching abilities.” Leanna said with a wink at her son, who promptly turned bright red.

Jemma visibly relaxed at her words. Admittedly her ability to detect gentle teasing or sarcasm wasn’t the most refined of her many skills and talents.

“I would love to see the dresses you brought out.” Jemma said after a moment of not knowing what on earth to say.

“Of course! Right this way my dear!” Leanna exclaimed, guiding Jemma towards the dressing rooms.

As she was being led away, Jemma looked back over her shoulder at Fitz, shooting him a small smile, which he returned. He was a bit of an odd duck, Jemma thought, but she liked him very much all the same. It wasn’t often that you came across another young prodigy the exact same age as yourself. Giving herself a little shake as Leanna drew back the curtain of the dressing room, Jemma resolved to focus on the task at hand and began examining the white dresses in front of her. Leanna had brought out some truly gorgeous dresses, nothing too fussy or extravagant and all just perfectly suited to her taste. As she gazed at them Jemma quietly thought that Leanna must have some kind of magical intuition for just knowing exactly what a bride wanted before they even knew it themselves. Mentally reminding herself to thank Daisy a million times over for suggesting this place, Jemma plucked out a few that she liked enough to try on. The first few were okay, they either sat in the wrong places or had some unfortunate bit of trim that looked nice hanging up, but not so great when tried on. As she pulled on the fifth dress of the day, Jemma was beginning to lose hope that she would ever find a dress that she liked even just enough to get married in and that would do passably well in photographs. So as she stepped out of the dressing room in dress number five, her hopes were not high, but as she turned and looked at herself on the giant mirrored wall outside the dressing room, she took in a small, sharp, intake of breath. It was beautiful. She couldn’t even speak it was so perfect. The straight white gown fell to the floor, the delicate waves of lace creating a gentle fishtail effect. The delicate lace was placed perfectly all over the gown, the high neckline not feeling to cloying or choking but sitting perfectly above her collarbones. And the sleeves! Almost every gown she’d tried on thus far had had either the most ridiculous sleeves she’d ever seen in her life or had no sleeves at all, and she really didn’t fancy spending the whole day hauling her dress up or forcing herself into underwear that was uncomfortable to look at, never mind wear for longer than an hour. But these sleeves fell perfectly to just above her elbow, the ends finished with more delicate waves of lace that weren’t overly fussy or dramatic, but in perfect harmony with the rest of the dress. After standing in utter silence for a few moments, Jemma realised, much to her surprise that she had tears welling in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, but they fell down her face in utter defiance of her.

“I think we’ve found the one my dear.” Leanna’s voice said softly, piercing the small bubble that Jemma had found herself in.

Jemma, still unable to speak, just nodded furiously. Leanna bustled up to her and began fussing over the fit and making suggestions on where they might be able to take it in a little bit, but Jemma wasn’t really paying much attention.

“Would you like me to take some photos my dear? To send to your mum or your friends?” Leanna asked, breaking Jemma from her silent reverie.

“Oh! Yes, yes please! I promised mum I would. She’d be so disappointed not to be here, but she couldn’t come over for very long, and finding a dress has taken much longer than we thought it would.” Jemma said, quickly shaking herself out of her little bubble and rushing to pull her phone out of her bag, handing it to Leanna.

Lots of photo taking later, with Leanna looking at Jemma like a proud mother herself, Jemma found herself at the little front desk making an appointment to come in for a first fitting, Fitz lurking nervously behind his mother.

“Now dear, that’s you all booked it! We’ll see you here again in three weeks for your fitting!” Leanna exclaimed as she finished putting Jemma’s details into her computer.

“Thank you so much for everything! I really was about to give up all hope of finding anything at all! My friend Daisy, she came here looking for a dress last year, and recommended the place, so she’s getting flowers at the very least too!” Jemma replied happily.

Leanna’s face lit up at the mention of Daisy’s name.

“Oh yes! Daisy Johnson! I remember her! Lovely young woman. Wanted all the bells and whistles if I remember correctly! I ended up sending her over to the Davis’s shop a few blocks over, I knew they’d stock something that would suit her!”

Jemma laughed.

“Yes, that’s Daisy! She ended up getting her dress from them, she was so grateful that you sent her there! I have some photos on my phone if you’d like to see.” Jemma offered.

Leanna looked as if Christmas had come early.

“I would love to!” She said excitedly.

As she pulled out her phone to show Leanna the myriad of photos she had from Daisy and Lincoln’s wedding, Jemma noticed, just out of the corner of her eye, Fitz leaning against the doorway to the back room, a smile spread across his face. A good ten minutes of flicking through photos later, Jemma was finally shooed from the shop, an appointment card tucked away in her pocket. She had barely made it five minutes down the road when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she was surprised to see Fitz, the smile replaced by the now familiar sheepish expression he seemed to frequently wear.

“I-I just, I wanted to give you my number. In case you were still interested in seeing my designs some time.” He rushed out nervously, holding out a small piece of paper.

Jemma smiled.

“I would love to! I’ll message you sometime this week and we can set something up?” She asked.

“Yes! That, that would be perfect. Thank you!” Fitz smiled.

“Well then, I guess I’ll see you soon!”

“Y-yes, I guess so.”

Jemma turned back around and continued on her way, unable to stop the smile that had been plastered on her face for at least the last hour. She had the funniest of feelings about this Fitz, as if he was going to be significant in her life, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it yet. Whatever it was, luck or fate, she was truly grateful to have met him. Jemma spent the rest of her day catching up on work and the phoning Daisy to just gush about the wonderful experience she’d had that day, and of course to send every one of the hundreds of photos that Leanna had taken of the dress that day. Daisy was just as excited, if not more so, than both Jemma and Leanna combined, sending texts upon texts upon texts asking Jemma to describe every little detail of the dress and the experience to her. Jemma eventually ended up just calling her so she could give every excruciating detail to her excitable friend. With all of Daisy’s excitement she’d almost forgotten about Fitz and the little scrap of paper that held his phone number, until she reached into her pocket to pull out her appointment card in order to mark it neatly in her diary, and her fingers skimmed across it. She pulled it out with a smile and picking up her phone, punched the number in.

**Message:** Hi! It’s Jemma Simmons! I was just wondering if you’d be free for a tea or a coffee sometime this week? You could bring your designs along and I could bring along some of my bits and we could have a little bit of a brainstorm! Let me know! Jemma x

Barely ten minutes went by before Jemma’s phone lit up, Fitz’s reply filling her screen!

**Fitz:** Yeah of course! How’s your Wednesday afternoon?

Jemma smiled. As she was about to type back her answer, she felt a hand on her shoulder and a kiss pressed to the top of her head.

“Will! I didn’t hear you come in!” Jemma smiled, looking up at her fiancé.

“I’m guessing by the look on your face that today went good then? We don’t have to push the wedding back cause there’s no wedding dress in the state of New York good enough?” Will teased.

Jemma smiled, swatting him playfully on the chest.

“Yes it went really well! The lady who owned the shop was absolutely wonderful and so helpful, and she ended up helping me find the most gorgeous dress!” Jemma said excitedly.

“As long as you’re the one in it, it will be the most gorgeous dress in the world.” Will grinned.

Jemma flushed bright red at his words. Will loved to give her compliments like this all the time, and despite the fact that they’d been together for over two years now, she’d never gotten any better at accepting them.

“Anyway,” Jemma continued, pulling Will’s arm around her.

“The owner _also_ has this son, and would you believe it, he’s as young as me and he’s finished his PhD too! In engineering, not biochemistry, but it was so nice to meet someone who’s been through the same kind of path as I have. I think I’m going to meet up with him sometime this week and we can talk shop.” Jemma chatting happily.

“Huh, another little brainbox! That’s nice. It might be good for you to have a friend that understands all your work stuff, you know, since I sure as hell don’t know what you’re going on about half the time.” Will said with a small smile.

This was one of the many things that Jemma loved about Will. He may not have a singular clue about what she was talking about in her work most of the time, but he was always encouraging and supportive of everything that she did. It was refreshing after years of boyfriends who told her to not to talk science so much because they didn’t understand what she was on about. A small nagging part of her that resided at the back of her brain would occasionally pipe up and say how much better it would be, how much more fun and exciting it would be if Will did understand her work. Jemma was able to quash this voice quite easily now, although it had been annoyingly perky and present ever since they’d gotten engaged. Giving herself a small shake, she looked up at Will, who was now shirking off his suit jacket and pulling off his tie, as he always did at the end of a long workday. Jemma felt a small tug in her stomach as she watched him, enjoying the simple domesticity of the scene before her in spite of it. The feeling that now resided deep in her stomach wasn’t new to her, it appeared every time that traitorous voice at the back of her brain reared its head. Uncertainty. It never lasted long, Jemma reasoning it away as soon as it came, telling herself that she’d never been more certain of anything when she’d accepted Will’s proposal. She loved him and she was going to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him. There was no debate to be had.

Jemma had ended up meeting with Fitz the Wednesday following her appointment once she’d finished with work for the day. She had arrived five minutes early to the little café that Fitz has suggested, her packet of work on dendrotoxins placed neatly next to the green tea that she had ordered. Fitz stumbled in five minutes late, his arms full of papers, looking rather flustered. Jemma couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him as he tried to wave at her underneath his armful of things. Once he’d sat himself down across from her, managed to create some semblance of organisation about himself, and ordered a large hot chocolate, he finally began to explain his designs. It was as Jemma had expected, he was far more brilliant than he gave himself credit for. They sat together for she didn’t know how long, talking through each other’s projects, suggesting improvements and developments, solving problems together. Nothing in the world had ever felt so natural, so right than sitting there with Fitz, putting their heads together, combining their brainpower to create something wonderful. There was one design that Fitz kept shifting away from her, insisting that it was useless, he’d only just come up with it the other night, and was so ridiculously preliminary that it was not worth her attention. Naturally his insistence that she didn’t look at it just piqued her curiosity even more. Eventually, when he wasn’t paying attention, Jemma managed to snatch it up, and managed to get a good look at it before Fitz grabbed it out of her hands again.

“Oh Fitz.” Jemma breathed.

He went red around the ears, trying to stuff the design underneath a stack of his papers.

“Why are you hiding that from me? It’s marvellous! Incredible really! The potential that this has, it could change the way that modern forensic work is carried out forever!” She exclaimed.

“Not really.” Fitz mumbled.

“They’re just some silly little drones I thought up when I was half asleep. It’s why I didn’t want to show you. They’re nothing like the designs for the Night Night gun or the Golden Retrievers or anything. That’s just a preliminary sketch. Don’t even know why I brought it.” He grumbled.

Jemma just looked at him in slight disbelief. Did he really not know how brilliant he was?

“Fitz, they’re brilliant. Beyond brilliant.”

“Really?” He asked shyly.

Jemma reached out and grabbed his hand across the table. This seemed to surprise him, and he stared at her hand covering his own.

“Really. You should have more confidence in your abilities. You were head hunted by Tony Stark himself for gods sake! You’re good Fitz. Brilliant really!” Jemma smiled at him.

A tentative smile spread across Fitz’s face at her words and he looked up at her with an expression that Jemma couldn’t quite place, but she suddenly felt quite warm, and took her hand off of his, placing it nervously around her now cold and empty mug.

“I suppose.”

“I would be more than happy to assist or advise you on some of the biochemical elements of them if you like?” Jemma offered, trying to rid herself of the warm feeling that was still flowing over her.

Fitz smiled, his face lighting up.

“I would love that. I mean, I know enough to get by, but with your help, they, they could really be quite something.”

There was something quite endearing about this quietly brilliant man, Jemma thought. Part of her hoped that this wouldn’t be a one-off occasion, that maybe they could become friends. Her thoughts were disturbed by her phone lighting up on the table next to her.

“Oh do you need to get that?” Fitz asked, watching as her eyes flit over the screen.

“No, it’s fine, it’s just Will asking if I’ll be home for dinner.” Jemma replied, not looking up as she typed out a reply.

“Will?”  
  


“My fiancé.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course.”

“In fact, I should probably get going! But I would love to do this again! Or you can just text me or call or anything if you want to ask me something? I’ll probably think of about a thousand questions to ask you as soon as I leave. It’s been so lovely to just talk things over like this Fitz.” Jemma smiled at him, gathering up her things.

“Your fiancé? He doesn’t…” Fitz questioned.

“Oh no. Will’s a lawyer, very intelligent in his own right, but not a clue what I’m on about half the time.” Jemma laughed.

“Oh.” Was all Fitz could manage to say in response.

“It’s fine! With his law talk sometimes I can understand how he might feel when I go on about work. Anyway, would the same time next week work for you?” Jemma asked as she pulled on her jacket.

Fitz nodded.

“Yeah, p-perfect.” He stumbled.

“Excellent! I’ll see you then. Give my best to your mum!” Jemma smiled, scooping up the last of her things and skipping out of the little café.

What she didn’t see was Fitz smacking his head across the table as soon as the door shut behind her. 

They kept in fairly regular correspondence after that day. It started off as texting back and forth about the various projects they’d discussed, but somewhere along the way little personal details started falling into their texts and conversations. It was so nice, Jemma thought, to have someone who understood what it had all been like, to be the youngest, the smartest, the one who was always singled out, who was different. Fitz understood it all. They met up again the following Wednesday, Fitz happily brandishing a new and more polished mock-up of his little drone designs that was so impressive, Jemma let out an audible gasp. Overall, Jemma had just felt happier, more herself since she’d met Fitz. Sometimes she would stop and wonder how she’d only known him three weeks, it felt like a long and wonderful lifetime, just having this person who spoke the same language as she did, who was tuned into the same wavelength. Talking to him was easy, not just about work and their projects, but about life. The day before her first dress fitting Jemma was excited, mostly about her dress but also at the prospect of potentially seeing Fitz again. She’d had a wonderful idea about his drone project and a text wasn’t enough to do it justice, and she couldn’t wait until their next Wednesday cafe meeting. Just as she was about to pick up her phone and text him, asking if he’d be there tomorrow, his name lit up her screen.

**Fitz** Bad news! Mum’s come down with some nasty cold and can’t manage your fitting tomorrow. She asked me to ask you if it would be okay to reschedule for same time next week?

Jemma let out a frustrated sigh. Of course it was awful that Leanna was ill, but she was coming up for her first big performance review at work and had practically scheduled her entire life for the next two weeks around it.

**Jemma** Oh no! Please let her know that I’m thinking about her and wishing her well! Unfortunately, I’m absolutely jam packed for the next two weeks! Prep for that review I was telling you about.

**Fitz** Mum says that you need to have the first fitting in the next two weeks if the alterations that need done are to be finished in time. And I don’t know why you’re fretting so much about that. You’re brilliant and they’d be mad not to see it.

Jemma felt like she could scream in frustration. This stupid review had already forced her to push back meetings with the wedding caterer and their venue manager, and now she might not even have a dress to show up in. She crumpled her face in her hands, and tried to figure out some kind of solution. The only real free time she had carved out in her week was her Friday date nights with Will and her Wednesday afternoon meetings with Fitz. The solution was unfortunately clear.

**Jemma** Would you mind terribly if we missed our Wednesday meeting next week? It’s just about the only time I don’t have to be in the office?

She sent the message, her stomach feeling like someone had dropped it off of a hundred-storey building. She hated even suggesting it, her Wednesday meetings with Fitz had quickly become a highlight of her week and she hated even suggesting cancelling. Fitz took a moment to reply, Jemma feeling worse and worse the longer he took. She knew he looked forward to their meetings too and that he’d be disappointed. When her phone finally lit up again, Jemma hesitated before opening it, not wanting to read Fitz’s disappointed reply. Finally opening up her phone and reading his message after a few moments of putting it off, Jemma was surprised.

**Fitz** Come in tomorrow as planned. We’ve worked something out.

Jemma’s mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario.

**Jemma** I don’t want your mum to put herself out for me! If I have to pay extra to get some of the alterations rushed it’s completely fine! Please tell Leanna that it’s fine to delay! We’ll work something out!

If possible, Fitz’s next message surprised her even more!

**Fitz** It won’t be my mum. She’s calling in a long-owed favour as she calls it. Just come in tomorrow and we’ll get you and your dress so.

Jemma felt her heart swell. How lucky she was to have met such kind and good people, she thought as she stared down at her phone?

“Fitz?” Will’s voice broke her out of her reverie.

Jemma whipped her head up to look at him as he padded over to her with two mugs in his hands. He passed one to her, Jemma smiling as she smelt the fresh green tea with just a hint of lemon, just as she liked it, and threw himself and his cup of coffee onto the couch next to her.

“How did you know?” Jemma asked with a smile, placing her phone down and wrapping both hands around her tea.

“You always have that happy little face on when you’re texting him. His name has become like your favourite word these last couple of weeks. It’s good to see. This Fitz is good for you, a good friend to you, that much I can tell.” Will smiled, leaning down and kissing her softly.

Jemma smiled back, and placed her hand on his cheek.

“Love you.” She whispered.

“Love you too. Can’t wait to marry you.”

Jemma went red. Will said things like that a lot, and Jemma still had not gotten used to hearing it.

“Anyway, when am I going to get to meet this illusive Fitz?” Will said, leaning back into the couch and taking a sip of his coffee.

“I have my first dress fitting tomorrow at noon. I believe he’ll be milling about then, why don’t you meet me once I’m finished and you can meet him then and we can go and grab lunch after?” Jemma suggested.

“Sounds perfect! I’m in meetings all morning and knowing I get to see you, and of course the promise of meeting the fortold Fitz? Sounds great.” Will replied in a seemingly happy tone, though Jemma thought she sensed a steely undertone to his words.

Jemma could not account for this this subtle harshness and choosing to ignore it she turned to smile up at Will. He was a good man. She was sure he didn’t mean to sound rude about Fitz. She loved him. She did.

The next morning, Jemma woke up excited, but nervous. Naturally, Jemma’s imagination had run rampant for the rest of the day, wondering what on earth she was going to walk into tomorrow, and wasn’t really paying much attention to the work she’d put aside for herself to do that morning. When finally, Jemma walked up to the shop, exactly on time, she was surprised to see that it looked shut. When she peered in through the windows, she was surprised then to see Fitz pottering about inside. She smiled and rapped neatly on the glass. Fitz jumped about a mile and spun round from whatever he was doing, looking at her and then down at his watch, mouthing what was very clearly a swear word before looking up at her and gesturing to the door. Fitz scrambled to get the lock open, letting a few more swear words slip in his efforts, but finally pulled the door open, looking very flustered, his curls askew and a tape measure flung haphazardly around his neck.

“Hello. Sorry about all this, time just got away from me a bit, I don’t know how mum does it I really don’t.” He rambled, stepping to one side to let her in.

“That’s alright.” Jemma smiled.

“I wondered if you’d forgotten about me, when I walked up and saw the place all shut up.” She joked.

Fitz had started fiddling about with things again as Jemma had wandered in, but at this he looked up at her.

“N-no. Of course not.” He stuttered.

There was a moment of silence after this where suddenly the shop felt very small and tight and hot to Jemma, Fitz looking at her in that way that she couldn’t quite work out.

“I-I mean, I just kept everything kind of dark and locked up looking so that no one else would come in. We aren’t strictly open, just doing this for you really. Because you couldn’t manage.” Fitz stammered out, breaking the silence, space and air finally filling the shop again.

“So, what exactly is your plan? Are we waiting on someone coming? You mentioned that your mum called in a favour yesterday?” Jemma asked, trying to bring the conversation and tone of the place to a somewhat normal feeling again.

“Ah, well no. I’m going to be doing the fitting. Mum’s been working in this industry since before I was even born, and I just grew up with it. Spent a lot of time in shops like this growing up. Mum taught me to sew, and to fit dresses. The precision of it all weirdly helped me with electronics. Taught me the importance of little details I think. I hope this is okay? If not, you can just go and I’m sure we can work something else ou-“ Fitz rambled, the tops of his ears flushing red.

Jemma too, felt her face going slightly pink. Out of all the scenarios she’d run in her head, Fitz being the one to fit her wedding dress was not one of them. Oh but it was, the traitorous voice at the back of her head said. It just seemed oddly intimate, and all the air in the room seemed to get sucked out again as quickly as it had returned.

“Yes, tha-that’s fine. I’m just really glad we were able to make this work.” Jemma mumbled, interrupting his rambling.

“Well I wasn’t about to let you cancel our Wednesday. I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t allowed to pick at your brain anymore.” Fitz smiled.

Jemma laughed.

“Of course. My brain is only at your disposal once a week between three and five, you have to get your fill when you can.” She joked.

A light pink tinge appeared on Fitz’s face at her words and Jemma decided again, that it was time to move the conversation onto the matter at hand.

“So what is the plan for…” She started.

“The plan for today! Right!” Fitz finished, looking flustered, hopping over to the dressing rooms.

“Right, so your dress is already nice and hung up in there, if you just want to go in there and pop it on and come back out and I can get you all nice and fitted. Mum said there wasn’t too much to do, just some bits around the shoulder and ah, taking up the hem a little bit.” Fitz rambled, pulling open the dressing room curtain, before hopping nervously away again.

“Right!” Jemma smiled, determined to get rid of whatever it was in the air that was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end.

“I’ll see you in a minute!” She said, shuffling herself into the dressing room, grabbing the curtain and pulling it shut, allowing herself to take a deep breath in and then out again, before concentrating her gaze firmly on the dress hanging up before her.

It was just as beautiful as she remembered it, running her fingers gently over the delicate lace neckline before kicking off her shoes and taking another deliberate breath in through her nose and quietly out through her mouth. A few minutes later, she pulled the curtain back again to see Fitz sat on one of the plush benches usually reserved for the mother and bridesmaids. He quickly hopped up at the sound of the curtain rail again, and Jemma noticed he was wearing that look on his face again, the one that she couldn’t quite place.

“I couldn’t quite manage the top few buttons by myself. Do you mind?” Jemma asked quickly.

Fitz’s ears flushed red again.

“N-no of course not. It’s what I’m here for. To help.” He spluttered, taking a step towards her.

Jemma swiftly turned her back to him, pulling her hair over her shoulder, revealing the three buttons that she couldn’t quite reach, leaving a small swath of skin revealed to him. For some reason it was a shock to feel Fitz’s fingers grazing against the bare skin of her back. It felt intimate in a way that it had no right to. He fumbled with the little buttons, the new buttonholes stiff and unyielding to the soft, fabric covered buttons, and Jemma heard him swearing under his breath as he fought to wrestle the buttons through, which she allowed herself to laugh quietly at. When the last button finally complied under Fitz’s fingers, Jemma spun around, and found herself almost nose to nose with Fitz. Heat immediately rose up through her face and Fitz took a swift step back and away from her.

“Tricky little bastards those buttons.” He laughed, trying to pretend that the last thirty seconds had not just happened.

Jemma let out a small laugh of agreement as she looked at his face, into his wonderfully deep blue eyes that swam and sparked when he got excited, trying to figure out what was going on behind them.

“If you just wanna…” Fitz said, breaking Jemma out of her reverie, gesturing to the little ivory pedestal that stood in front of the mirror.

“Yes, right!” Jemma said, hopping up onto the little platform.

Fitz took a step back and just looked at her for a second, before shuffling to the side and fussing with the small stack of supplies he’d collected on the floor in front of her. Jemma heard the clattering of pins, and suddenly Fitz was at her shoulder, fidgeting with the top of her sleeve, a pin dangling from his mouth and a look of utter concentration on his face. He worked in silence for a few moments, carefully twitching and fixing the sleeve into the correct place.

“So, you had an idea about my drones?” He asked, taking a pin from the little magnet that was strapped to his wrist, and placing it carefully in the sleeve.

Jemma heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, something that made some kind of sense that she could ramble on about for a while. And ramble she did, Fitz listening in raptures as he worked carefully and delicately on her dress. After he’d fixed the sleeves, he kneeled down and started pinning up the hem to a more reasonable length, still responding enthusiastically to the litany of ideas she was reeling off to him. This was much better, Jemma thought. Far more comfortable than whatever had been happening earlier. And just like that, in what felt like no time at all, Fitz was done, and was asking her if she wanted to make anymore adjustments. Shaking her head, she tried to hop down from the little pedestal, but lost her balance slightly, and she reached out and grabbed into mid-air, until suddenly she wasn’t. Fitz’s hand grasped her own, steadying her and helping her down. Her hand felt comfortable in his and she stared down at where they remained clasped together, before coming to her senses and gently pulling her hand away from his. Immediately her hand felt cold, Fitz’s hand must have been a furnace for her to feel the loss that quickly.

“Thank you. That could have ended very poorly.” Jemma laughed weakly.

“Yeah, I’m not sure pulling about a thousand pins out of yourself is really the best way to start an afternoon.” Fitz smiled back.

“So, uh if you just want to go and get changed and I can just put your dress into a garment bag all ready to get sent off to mum’s favourite seamstress, though I’m sure the second she feels the slightest bit better, she’ll be down here checking my work.”

“You did a wonderful job, and I’m sure she’ll say the same! If you don’t mind again, I’m really not sure I’ll be able to undo all these buttons without sticking myself with a pin.” Jemma said tentatively.

She was sure that she heard Fitz gulp.

“S-sure! Of course! Wouldn’t want you hurting yourself.” He scrabbled.

“Excellent!” Jemma smiled falsely, nerves such as she had never felt before sparking up her stomach as she turned around and pulled her hair forward again.

It all felt so excruciatingly slow. For whatever reason Fitz had a harder time undoing the buttons than he had done doing them up. Every time his fingers skimmed over her skin a thrill that she had absolutely no right to, bolted up her back like electricity. Once, finally, all of the buttons had been undone, Jemma practically ran to the dressing room, pulling the curtain tightly shut. Her hand trailed along the exposed skin of her back before she realised what she was doing. She pulled her hand away quickly bringing it up to her face, worrying it against her forehead. This, this wasn’t right. She was engaged, and in love with Will. She was going to marry him. Whatever this was, whatever these feelings were, she needed to put them away somewhere neat and tidy and where they would never see the light of day again. This was Fitz. Her friend, who she had only known for three weeks. This was ridiculous. But now the traitorous voice at the back of her brain reared it’s head and murmured ‘But it’s never been like that with Will. Not even in the beginning.’. Jemma hated it, but the voice was right. No, she thought firmly. This is just silly. She’d been with Will for over two years now, she loved him and she was marrying him in five months time. She was in her wedding dress for goodness sake. Resolving to put these thoughts and feelings out of her mind, Jemma began to carefully make her way out of the now pin-filled dress. After she was dressed and sorted, the dress hanging up neatly on the wall, she took a deep breath in and pulled back the curtain of the dressing room. To her absolute shock when her eyes found him at the other end of the store, Fitz was not alone.

“Ah, there she is!” Will smiled, turning to look at her.

Jemma felt all of the blood drain out of her face at the sight of him. Trying to push down the feeling that was rising in her stomach like she’d been caught sitting on Fitz’s lap with her tongue down his throat, which was an image she really didn’t need in her brain right now, she plastered a smile on her face and walked over to them, Will catching her round the waist and kissing her lightly.

“I was just getting to know your friend Fitz here.” He said with a fake smile.

Fitz looked like a deer in headlights, as Jemma flitted her gaze over to him for a moment. Will gazed from Jemma to Fitz and back again, looking confused.

“Did you forget I was coming sweetheart?” Will asked, his voice not quite hiding the underlying tone of concern that was laced in his question.

“No! Of course I didn’t! It’s just you’re early! I wasn’t expecting you for another ten minutes at least!” Jemma exclaimed.

“My morning meeting finished a little early so, I figured I’d just come on over! And my timing couldn’t be better it seems! I got here just as you were finishing up.” Will smiled, the steely undertone of the previous evening rearing its head again.

“Yes! Absolutely perfect timing!” Jemma agreed, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

“Fitz was just telling me he’s about to start working for Stark. Must have quite the head on your shoulders to be personally head hunted by the man himself!” Will said, conversationally.

Fitz went red again.

“Well I mean I’m not bad.” Fitz mumbled.

“Not bad?! He’s brilliant! You know all the stories I’ve told you Will! You wouldn’t believe that for a second would you!” Jemma exclaimed.

“After all the things you’ve told me Jemma, no, not for a second.” Will said politely, his eyes shifting from his fiancée to Fitz again.

“Anyway, Fitz, I left the dress hanging up in the dressing room, hopefully I didn’t knock any pins out when I was taking it off!” Jemma smiled, taking Will’s hand as she spoke.

“R-right!” Fitz stammered.

“So, uh, we’ll get that all sent away to the seamstress for you, and Mum will give you a phone when it’s ready. Should take anywhere between three weeks to a month, just depending on how busy she is. But don’t worry about anything, Bobbi’s been doing this for Mum for years and Mum says she’s the best she’s ever worked with.” Fitz rambled, swinging back and forth on his feet.

“That’s perfect! My schedule will hopefully have calmed down by then!” Jemma smiled cheerfully at him.

“Yeah, I’ve been lucky if I see her for five minutes in the morning and five minutes before bed these last couple of weeks.” Will bemoaned, pulling Jemma ever so slightly closer to him.

“Well, it’s my first performance review, I just want everything to go perfectly. You know what I’m like about these kinds of things.” Jemma said, looking up at him.

“Yes, unfortunately I do. I may not have a clue what it is that you’re up to in that lab of yours, but I sure as hell know that you need to eat and sleep like the rest of us. Speaking of…” Will trailed off, glancing down at his watch.

“We really should get going if we want to get a bite to eat before I need to get back into the city for my next meeting. It was real nice meeting you Fitz.”

Will held out his hand to Fitz, Fitz nodding and shaking it silently.

“I’ll see you on Wednesday Fitz! Thanks so much for everything and tell your mum I’m thinking about her!” Jemma cried back at him as Will began to shepherd her out of the door.

“I will! See you on Wednesday Jemma!” Fitz waved back at her.

As the door slammed shut behind them, Fitz seemed to physically melt, his entire body slumping over, his face like that of a kicked puppy. The surprise presence of Will, the fiancé, had rammed everything home for him, but he couldn’t stop that aching feeling in his chest whenever Jemma walked away, or the nirvana like feeling that bloomed throughout his entire body whenever he saw her, or spoke to her, or thought about her. He crumpled his face in his hands. He was in really, really big trouble now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m just super duper excited about this fic, I cannot wait to hear what you all think. I will be updating every Wednesday at 5pm GMT as per usual, and boy oh boy if you think this chapter is something, hold onto your hats for next week folks!
> 
> See you then!
> 
> Skye :)


	2. The Perfect Fit(z)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With only three months left until Jemma and Will’s wedding, Jemma is stressed like she’s never known, but will a kind gesture from Fitz, and a firm word in her ear from Daisy finally make her see sense? Meanwhile Fitz is still struggling with his feelings for Jemma, but he can keep that to himself, can’t he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with another lovely chapter! I probably should have split this up into multiple chapters, it’s so long, but I just could not bring myself to do it. I am super DUPER excited about this chapter!!! You’ll see why. It’s just... it’s a lot. Honestly just hold onto your hands this chapter cause just so much happens (but also does not ;) ) I will stop my teasing now and let you get onto the reading of the thing! 
> 
> Final note: This fic DOES have a depiction of a panic attack, not in this chapter but in the third chapter. I am adding a trigger warning to EVERY chapter note just so that this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. I would hate to trigger someone unnecessarily and I would rather be safe than sorry.

If Jemma thought that she was stressed six months before the wedding, with no wedding dress, it was absolutely nothing to the stress she was feeling with three months to go. The caterer was worried about the supply of the fish they needed for some of the canopies, the florist had only now informed them that the main flowers she had wanted for her bouquet and for the boutonnieres were going to be just out of season, and to add to all of it her work had ramped up so much after her gleaming performance review that she’d only just been able to try her wedding dress on for the first time after her fitting last week. Thanks to her strategically planned wedding diet, the dress now hung slightly too loosely around her middle and now needed to get further alterations, meaning that it was only going to be ready now three weeks before the wedding. Leanna Fitz had busied about her and mothered her as she adjusted and pinned the dress again, telling her that she was already too thin and if she lost any more weight she was going to personally turn up on her doorstep with a care package of cakes to feed her for every moment up until she walked down the aisle. Even her Friday night date nights with Will had become stressful, they just ended up talking or, more often than not, arguing about the last minute wedding details that needed to get sorted. The only part of her week where she felt calm and relaxed and at ease were her Wednesday coffee meetings with Fitz, and even those had been shortened right down after Fitz started his work at Stark Industries. Still, that one hour every week just kept her sane. Some weeks she felt like Fitz was a saint for putting up with her, whinging about her wedding plans and everything going on with her work, and he would just sit and listen and try to help.

They hadn’t talked about what had happened during her first dress fitting, and Jemma had respected the silent agreement between them to never talk about it again, to forget that it ever happened. The friendship that they had found in each other was far too important to throw away over whatever the hell had happened that afternoon. The traitorous voice in her head liked to rear its head whenever Jemma went over this, suggesting small ideas like: ‘Well what would have happened if you met Fitz before Will?’, and even worse ‘You need to ask Fitz about what happened that afternoon.’. This voice was getting harder and harder to banish the more time she spent with Fitz, but Jemma was determined to ignore it all costs. Fitz was a friend; she was marrying Will and was going to spend the rest of her life with him and that was that. No more discussion necessary. This was all running through Jemma’s head for what must have been the thousandth time during one of her Wednesday meetings with Fitz. She was broken from her reverie by the sound of Fitz’s voice softly saying her name.

“Jemma?”

She gave herself a shake and focused on Fitz who was sitting across from her, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a lot on my mind at the moment. I’m sorry, what were you saying?” She smiled falsely.

“I was wondering if you would mind moving the location of our Wednesday meeting next week?” Fitz asked with a smile. 

Jemma looked at him, confused.

“Well you did say the first time we met that you’d love to snoop around Stark’s place. Well I had a chat with my boss and you can come and get a tour from yours truly at four o’clock next Wednesday. That is if you want to?” Fitz smiled.

Jemma’s jaw dropped and she just gaped at Fitz for a moment, before pushing herself up and out of her chair, launching herself across the length of the small table between them and into his arms, hugging him tightly.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Jemma could feel him smiling, his words muffled against her shoulder. Pulling back to look at his grinning face, Jemma planted a kiss on his cheek, prompting Fitz to very quickly turn a deep shade of pink.

“H-how?” Jemma stammered as she made her way back to her own seat.

“Well, they’ve been quite happy with what I’ve been doing these last few months, and I knew you wanted to see the place, I thought it would take your mind off of, you know, everything else you have going on right now. I knew it’d make you happy, so I thought I’d chance my mitt and ask and he said yes.” Fitz explained, rubbing at his cheek where Jemma has kissed him, the pink slowly draining out of his face.

“Fitz! This is amazing! I cannot wait! Thank you so much!” Jemma gushed, looking at Fitz with utter awe and admiration glittering in her eyes.

Fitz watched Jemma rattle on about everything she was so excited to see with a similar look on his face. He hated seeing her so stressed. He was just glad he could make her smile again. Jemma meanwhile was too preoccupied with her excitement to notice that Fitz was wearing that look on his face again, the one where he gazed at her as if she had hung the moon and all of the stars in the sky.

“Just, thank you so much Fitz! I have no idea how to make it up to you!” Jemma exclaimed after she finished listing the many parts of Stark Industries she was excited to explore.

“No need. I think it’ll be just as fun for me as it will be for you, if that reaction is anything to go off of.” Fitz smiled.

“You really are one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met Fitz.”

Fitz flushed red again, picking up his hot chocolate and taking a long drink.

Jemma was antsy all week, to the point where Will took her to one side to ask her if she was okay. Daisy had just rolled her eyes when Jemma told her the reason she looked like she was physically bouncing. Daisy had not met Fitz yet, thanks to both Jemma and his busy schedules, but was eager to meet him, mostly cause Jemma never really shut up about him on a normal day.

“It’s almost like when you first met Will. Actually, scratch that, it’s worse than when you met Will.” Daisy had joked one evening that week, as she and Jemma rearranged the seating plan for what felt like the millionth time after some distant cousin of Will’s had decided that he was going to be able to make it to the wedding after all.

“It is not.” Jemma said, rolling her eyes at her.

“It is too! And I don’t even know what this guy looks like. I truly refuse to believe that you have no photos of him.” Daisy scoffed.

“Well I don’t! Why do you want to know what he looks like so badly anyway?” Jemma asked, looking suspiciously out of the corner of her eye.

“Are you serious? You never shut up about him. I just want to put a face to the name.”

As she spoke the last words, Daisy’s face lit up and she pulled her phone out of her pocket quicker than a cowboy at a dawn standoff. Jemma’s eyes went wide with realisation and she dove for Daisy, but Daisy was too quick for her. Jemma ended up chasing Daisy in circles around the small living room, Daisy holding her phone consistently out of Jemma’s reach.

“Don’t you dare google him Daisy!” Jemma cried as she ran after her.

“AHA! I FOUND HIM. Leopold James Fitz is a electronic engineer in Stark Industries prestigious engineering and development department.” Daisy read.

“Oh, Jemma he’s cute!” Daisy exclaimed, stopping in her tracks as she scrolled down the Stark Industries web page.

Jemma crashed into Daisy’s back and glimpsed the webpage that she was looking at. There was indeed a picture of Fitz on the Stark webpage, looking fairly dashing, the traitorous voice at the back of her head added unnecessarily.

“Would you please stop internet stalking my friend now please.” Jemma sighed, taking a step back from Daisy.

“Okay, chill Jemma. I was just curious after hearing so much about the guy. Honestly, you should be surprised that it’s taken me this long to google the guy.” Daisy said, clicking off of the web page.

Jemma gave a small smile as she placed herself in front of the infernal seating chart again.

“Me too if I’m being honest.” She mumbled.

Daisy just laughed and sat back down next to her, looking at her for a moment before asking what she’d clearly been bursting to since the millisecond she saw Fitz’s photo.

“And Will’s really okay with you hanging out with Fitz so much?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t he be?” Jemma said, trying her best to keep her voice calm and level.

“Jemma. You aren’t stupid enough to ask that question. Fitz is a cute, successful, and _insanely_ intelligent dude, who you get on with really well. You have similar life experiences and all that crap. If Will _wasn’t_ jealous I would be concerned.”

“Well he has no need to be. Fitz is just a friend.” Jemma said quickly, determinedly not looking at Daisy.

“Jemma, look at me and say that with a straight face.”

Jemma steeled herself and looked up and right into Daisy’s face.

“Fitz is just a friend.” She said, forcing every single muscle in her face to stay neutral.

“BULLSHIT JEMMA ANNE SIMMONS!” Daisy cried.

“You are the worst liar on planet earth you know that. What the hell happened?” Daisy asked.

Jemma couldn’t even debate that. Daisy knew her better than anyone else, and being the persistent personality that she was, she would never let this go. Deciding to just tell her, Jemma thanked every single one of her lucky stars that Will was out at a work event that evening and took in a deep breath and began.

“Okay. Something weird happened during my first dress fitting.” Jemma admitted quietly.

“Weird how?” Daisy asked eagerly.

“He kept _looking_ at me and it felt like all the air was sucked out of the room and I couldn’t do all the buttons up on the back of my dress and so I asked him to do them up and it just felt weird and I turned around and he was so close to me, like almost nose touching close. And then everything was fine when he was doing the fitting, we talked about fun work stuff and a project I’ve been helping him with and then I needed help with the buttons again and he undid them and it was all hot and weird again! We’ve never spoken about it. I don’t want to speak to him about it!”

Jemma reeled all of this off very quickly, her face scarlet, but feeling as though the weight of a bus was being lifted off of her chest. Daisy just stared at her and for the first time in all the years that Jemma had known her, she was utterly speechless.

“Jemma! Oh my god!” Daisy eventually cried.

“I know.” Jemma sighed.

“What are you going to do?” Daisy asked quietly.

“What do you mean, what am I going to do? I’m marrying Will, end of story. Whatever happened that afternoon, it-it was a one off and it’s never going to happen again and I’m not going to let it.” Jemma rambled, not looking at Daisy again.

“Jemma.” Daisy uttered softly.

“Jemma, are you sure? Are you completely sure there’s nothing there? Cause if there is and it’s causing the tiniest bit of doubt, you shouldn’t be marrying him.”

Jemma looked up at Daisy. She looked concerned, but Jemma just frowned at her.

“There’s nothing there. Like I said it was a one off and Fitz doesn’t think of me like that. That would be ridiculous. I’ve only known him for three months.” Jemma said, rattling of all of the reasonings that had been floating around her head for almost all of those aforementioned three months.

“Jemma. The boy is taking you into Stark Industries and giving you a full ass tour just because he wants to cheer you up. If he doesn’t have feelings for you then the I am a very convincing humanoid robot.” Daisy said seriously.

“He’s my friend Daisy. You’d take me to do something to cheer me up too wouldn’t you?” Jemma reasoned.

“Yes, but Stark is like notoriously tight on security protocols. I couldn’t hack into that place even if I wanted to. Which I don’t cause I’m an ethical hacker and I behave myself. Well most of the time. Anyway my point is, he went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of his way to do this thing for you, hell he went way out of his way to do your wedding dress fitting for you the first time cause you were stupid busy and couldn’t reschedule. That’s not something a friend just does Jemma.” Daisy said, giving Jemma a look, which plainly said, ‘You know I’m right.’

“Would you please just drop it Daisy and help me find a place to sit Robbie and his brother?!” Jemma snapped.

Daisy just looked at her with a sad smile.

“Just answer me one thing Jemma. Is Will really the love of your life?” Daisy asked softly.

Jemma looked up and stared right into her face, her expression flat and stoney.

“Yes.” She replied in a monotone voice, quickly diverting her attention back to the seating chart.

Daisy still wore the same sad, but resigned expression on her face.

“Well alright then.”

They were both silent for a moment, the only sound was Jemma determinedly shuffling about the little place setting markers.

“Please just promise me you won’t do anything stupid Jemma.” Daisy sighed after a few moments of this stifling silence.

Jemma’s eyes flitted back up to her again.

“I won’t.” She replied quietly.

Jemma tried desperately to forget Daisy’s words over the next couple of days, to forget that the very idea of Fitz liking her more than a friend was even a remote possibility, which it was. Nevertheless, as Wednesday slowly approached, Jemma found herself become more and more apprehensive about meeting with Fitz again. She refused to give it any real estate in her brain however, locking it away with other thoughts of Fitz that had popped into her head and had quickly banished. By the time Wednesday actually arrived and Jemma was making her way to the Stark Industries building to meet Fitz, she was definitely what most would describe as a nervous wreck. Fitz was standing outside, waiting for her. She saw him first, his eyes scanning the crowds of people passing by for her face. When he did notice her, his face lit up, as if someone had turned on a switch, and waved at her, beckoning her over to him. Every single apprehension Jemma had had seemed to disappear in that moment, like sugar in hot water, the sight of Fitz’s face made all of her worrying and fretting instantly irrelevant.

“Jemma!” Fitz smiled as she reached him.

“I was kind of hoping you’d be early. A hour isn’t really enough time to do the place justice. Are you ready?” He asked excitedly.

Jemma couldn’t help but smile.

“Of course! Let’s go.”

Fitz ushered her happily into the building and Jemma gasped. She was standing in the most beautiful glass atrium; the place was flooded with light from every angle. It didn’t feel empty and lifeless, like some modern buildings can, in fact quite the opposite. There were sparks of green plants and brightly coloured flowers adorning the place which just made it all feel so alive. If she was this impressed by the entryway, how on earth was she going to react when they reached the actual labs. Fitz was watching her with an amused expression on his face.

“It’s quite something isn’t it?” He said, stopping in his tracks for a moment.

“It’s beautiful.” Jemma breathed.

Fitz just chuckled and took her by the elbow to prod her forward again, guiding her over to the security desk. A hell of a lot of questions, and the Stark equivalent of an NDA form later, Jemma was issued with what she was assured was a very rarely granted visitors badge. As Fitz led her over to the elevators, Jemma just stared at him. By the time they were standing in a pristine glass elevator, Jemma burst out with the question that had been nagging her since the seventeenth question she’d been asked by the scary looking man behind the security desk.

“Fitz how did you manage this?” She asked quickly, turning to him.

Fitz just smiled.

“As I told you, they liked the work I’ve been doing and I asked for a favour. Admittedly it probably wasn’t the favour they thought I was going to ask for, judging by the looks on their faces when I said it.” Fitz laughed, trying to brush it off.

The look Jemma shot him assured him that she was unconvinced by this oh so casual explanation.

“Really Jemma, it was nothing. I promise.” Fitz said sincerely.

Despite this, Jemma remained unconvinced. She was just about to protest further when the elevator came to a smooth stop, the doors opening, letting floods of people in and Jemma decided to let it go, for now. At the next stop, Fitz grabbed her hand and they forced their way out through the people in front of them, Jemma trying to ignore the warmth that spread through her fingers and up her arm at the feeling of his hand clasped around her own.

“So, where are you taking me first?” Jemma asked with a smile, as she reluctantly let go of Fitz’s hand.

“I thought I would show you my gaff first. Then I can save the best part for last” Fitz replied his ears going pink.

“I just want to warn you, you’re going to meet one of my co-workers, Hunter. He’s my pal and, don’t get me wrong he’s a good engineer, but he’s a bit of a wanker, so just, don’t take everything he says too seriously.” Fitz said rather quickly as they walked down a modern, yet tastefully designed hallway.

Jemma just laughed.

“He sounds like a delight.”

“He can be, on his better days.” Fitz grumbled as he swiftly turned and led her through a open entryway.

Jemma gasped. The lab was large and beautiful, the curving glass wall on the far edge of the room almost making it feel like they were outside, like the lab itself was floating in mid air. The space itself was cluttered, which Jemma would have expected no less from Fitz, but it was cluttered with the most extraordinary things. His inventions lay all over the place, fragments of his mind, his imagination come to life, brought to life by him. The walls were plastered with blueprints, some finished, some half completed, and some barely begun at all. This was what the inside of his brain must look like, Jemma thought as her eyes moved about the wide-open space. It all just took Jemma’s breath away.

“Fitz, this is wonderful.” Jemma said, almost absently as her eyes continued to scan meticulously across the room.

Fitz flushed red again and rubbed nervously at the back of his neck.

“T-thanks. Stark really does know how to design a building. It’s a great space to work in.” Fitz rambled.

“It is, but I was more meaning your work, your designs. They’re amazing Fitz. I’m almost annoyed I cannot talk to anyone about it. I mean, I can talk to you and that’s really all that matters.” Jemma rambled back.

Fitz smiled, and led her over to the nearest workbench.

“Recognise these?” He grinned, holding up the tiniest little drone Jemma had ever seen.

“The D.W.A.R.V.E.S! Fitz! You didn’t mention that you’d built them yet! I thought you were still working out that bug in their programming.” Jemma gasped, taking the small drone into her hand.

“Nah, had that figured out since last Thursday thanks to that trick you mentioned at coffee last week. Anyway, that one you have there is Sleepy, and his main function is gathering biochemical properties of rooms and objects, but you know all that and more cause you basically helped design this little guy.” Fitz said fondly, looking down at the little drone as one would look at their new-born baby.

“Hello Sleepy. You really are the most wonderful little thing aren’t you.” Jemma cooed at the drone as she turned it carefully over in her hands.

“Are those the bio-sensors?” Jemma asked, holding Sleepy up right to her face.

“It’s so clever how you managed to embed them right into the outer casing like that. Genius really.” She mused, running her finger over the underside of the drone.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a voice boomed from the door, causing Jemma to almost drop poor Sleepy right onto the floor.

“FITZ! And this must be the lovely Jemma Simmons that Fitz has been talking about in every single sentence since the moment he started working here.” The loud English voice exclaimed.

Jemma looked up and saw a man with short dark hair and a scruffy beard who was wearing the biggest shit-eating grin she’d ever seen on someone who wasn’t Daisy.

“You must be Hunter.” Jemma smiled, holding out her hand towards him, shifting Sleepy into her left hand.  
  


“Ah so my reputation precedes me. Lance Hunter.” He grinned, giving her a wink before taking her hand and shaking it.

“I’m not sure I’d take that as a compliment mate.” Fitz murmured from behind Jemma.

Hunter stared at him, a look of mock scandal on his face.

“And here I was thinking you only ever said nice things about me.” Hunter jokingly whinged at Fitz.

“You and I both know that that would be a very short conversation mate.” Fitz quickly quipped back.

“Stop it Fitz, I’m getting ex-wife flashbacks here.” Hunter grimaced dramatically.

Jemma just laughed.

“Anyway, I was in the middle of being introduced to your lovely friend here. I’ve wanted to meet you for ages, the boy never shuts up about you, talks about you and your lovely brain all the time.”

“That’s a huge exaggeration Hunter, it isn’t all the time.” Fitz spat quickly, giving Hunter a look of both utter mortification and warning.

Hunter looked from Fitz to Jemma with a smug grin on his face. His eyes flitted to Jemma and down to the hand that was still cradling Sleepy and let out a gasp like he had just seen a ghost.

“Fitz you sly bastard! You never said you were… Just friends my arse eh?” Hunter practically screeched, pointing at Jemma’s left hand, where her engagement ring was plainly on show.

Simultaneously Jemma and Fitz both looked down at her hand and immediately understood Hunter’s meaning, Jemma almost dropping Sleepy again in surprise.

“So, when did you pop the question?! I mean that is some rock my friend. Hell, how long have you even been together, cause Fitz isn’t exactly fantastic when it comes to the details of these things?” Hunter continued excitedly.

“Hunter, no!” Fitz protested, his eyes wide and frantic.

“No Hunter nonononononononono! Fitz is just a friend! I’m engaged to someone else!” Jemma exclaimed.

Hunter stopped his bouncing and pointing, his face falling like someone had just told him Christmas was cancelled.

“You cannot be serious.” He uttered.

“Yes. Did Fitz never tell you how we met?” Jemma asked politely, placing Sleepy carefully down on the work bench.

Hunter just shook his head.

“I bought my wedding dress from his mothers’ shop. Fitz was helping out there the afternoon I went in and we just started talking and became friends.” Jemma explained, trying to sound chipper, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out her phone.

“This is my fiancé, Will, the night he proposed.” Jemma said, holding up a picture of her and Will cuddled together, her left hand on display in the centre of the picture.

Hunter looked from the picture, and back up at them again, eyeing them both very carefully. He looked almost lost for words as his eyes flitted back and forth for a moment. Jemma had known him for all of two whole minutes, but she guessed this lack of words was a rare, if not unheard-of occurrence for Hunter.

“Okay, alright then, I’m sorry, my mistake.” Hunter eventually said, though his eyes still wore an expression of utter disbelief.

“I mean you can understand my mistake though, I mean Fitz never shuts up about you, I already had my suspicions if I’m being perfectly honest, and so after he jumps through some quite frankly ridiculous hoops to get you in here for an hour, and _then_ you turn up with that rock on your finger, is it really any surprise that I though-“ Hunter rambled.

“Hunter, shut up.” Fitz interrupted through gritted teeth, a look on his face that was somewhere between ‘shut up right now’ and ‘I’m going to actually kill you the next time I see you’.

Jemma meanwhile had turned bright red, and was fiddling with her phone, not looking at either of them.

“It’s quite alright Hunter.” Jemma smiled politely at him.

“Like I said, Fitz and I are just friends. We haven’t even really known each other that long have we?”

“N-no. We met not long before I started here actually.” Fitz stammered.

Hunter just looked at the pair of them standing before him, privately thinking to himself that they were both hilariously clueless and that Jemma’s hogfaced fiancé better be bloody resilient.

“Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me, you can put the bat down now. We’re all just friends here I get it. My apologies for the misunderstanding” Hunter smiled, holding his hands up in surrender before shooting a wink at Fitz.

Jemma visibly relaxed at his words, but Fitz still looked at him with a murderous glare.

“So would Dr Fitz like a wonderful and charming assistant to help him with his tour or shall I make myself scarce?” Hunter asked with a smile.

“I was going to tell you to piss off, but I suppose your way of phrasing it is a bit more polite.” Fitz grumbled in response.

“Ah, Fitz ever the charmer. Since you are not in need of my wonderful company, I think I will head off home for the day. Fitz I will see you tomorrow and Jemma Simmons it has been a pleasure, I hope the next time we meet I will make less of an immediate arse of myself.”

“Chance would be a fine thing.” Fitz huffed with a smile.

“It was nice to meet you too Hunter.” Jemma said politely, holding out her hand for him to shake.

Hunter looked a little surprised at the gesture but took her hand all the same, shaking it firmly before shooting one last knowing look at Fitz, turning on his heel and leaving the lab.

“I did tell you he was a wanker.” Fitz mumbled as Hunter passed the threshold.

Jemma laughed, looking from Hunter’s retreating figure to Fitz’s disgruntled face.

“You did warn me.” Jemma conceded.

“Like I said, he’s a good pal really, just doesn’t know when to stop talking ninety nine percent of the time.”

“I would believe that. Definitely a case of good intentions, bad execution there.” Jemma smiled.

“Anyway, I’m supposed to be giving you a tour, not whinging about Hunter being an arse.” Fitz said, glancing down at his watch.

“And I said to the head of BioChem that we’d be there in five minutes so lets go!” he said, his voice a little bit more cheerful, looking up from his watch.

“You’re taking me to see the BioChem department?” Jemma asked, her eyes going wide in delight.

“Of course. I wasn’t going to bore you by dragging you around the Engineering department all afternoon, was I? Come on lets go!”

As Fitz began heading towards the door, Jemma just gazed after him for a second, and for just a moment, allowed herself to be overwhelmed with every feeling she’d been holding back about him. He did this just for her, to make her happy. ‘That’s not something a friend just does Jemma’. Daisy’s words from a few nights before rang in her ears. Suddenly Jemma realised where this train of thought was headings and she stopped it right in its track. She wasn’t doing to have that mental conversation with herself again. Fitz was her friend, she is engaged to Will, she was in love with Will and she is going to marry him. She IS in love with Will. Fitz is just a good friend, a good person. Feelings of that nature had nothing to do with it. Not even in the slightest. His reaction when Hunter had assumed that they were engaged was proof enough of that. He’d been repulsed by the idea, that much had been clear to her. Giving herself a small shake, she willed her feet to start moving again, banishing everything that had run through her brain the last thirty seconds into the deep dark recesses of her mind. But what was it that Hunter had just said? ‘Fitz never shuts up about you, I already had my suspicions if I’m being perfectly honest, and so after he jumps through some quite frankly ridiculous hoops to get you in here for an hour…’. The traitorous voice at the back of her mind reared its head again. So, Daisy was right, it hadn’t been nothing to get her in here for a tour. Why would anyone do that for just a friend? No, Jemma thought firmly. Fitz is a friend. Just a very very very good one.

Jemma managed to keep this internal battle with herself off of her face on the way to the BioChem department, engaging Fitz in conversations about his work, potential improvements to the D.W.A.R.V.E.S and things of that nature. But as soon as they entered the BioChem department, all reasonable thought left Jemma’s head. She knew she was lucky with her resources at SHIELD Labs but the technology and the developments they were doing at Stark just seemed, otherworldly. Fitz introduced her to an initially stern looking woman called Dr Weaver, the department head, who took over the tour and who was more than happy to chat about almost everything they were doing, the advancements, the tech they were using, some of which Jemma had heard of, but had never dreamed she’d see in real life. Fitz fell back slightly during this part of the tour, allowing Jemma and Dr Weaver to go ahead, Jemma reeling off questions and discussions with the woman at a rate of knots. He couldn’t help the feeling of awe that washed over him as he watched her interacting with Dr Weaver, a smile on her face that was the biggest he’d ever seen. She was happy, right in her element. It made him happy to see her so filled with enthusiasm and joy. He was glad that Jemma was so occupied right now because he knew that his emotions were written all over his face. He had tuned out about five minutes ago and had just been watching Jemma, her face excitedly chatting away, her looks of awe and interest. He could watch her face like this for hours. The thought ran through his head before he realised just how weird it sounded. He knew he was in love with her. He knew it was hopeless, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t see how anyone couldn’t be in love with her, she was the most amazing person he’d ever known. But in three months she was marrying someone who wasn’t him, and it would break his heart into a million tiny pieces, and he would just have to get over it.

“Fitz!”

Jemma’s voice broke through his haze of thoughts like a flashlight through fog, Fitz almost jumping at the sound of his own name.

“Yes, sorry, I was off in my own wee world there. Just had an idea that took me away for a sec. What were you saying?” Fitz asked, doing his level best to keep his expression somewhat neutral.

“Dr Weaver asked about the D.W.A.R.V.E.S. I mentioned that you’d come up with some new capabilities since you presented the idea last month.” Jemma said kindly.

“Yes! Well they’re not really _new_ new I just sorta enhanced some of their existing capabilities.” Fitz explained, forcing his brain to kick out of his daydream and into work mode.

Fitz spent the rest of the tour forcing himself to listen, not that it was much of a punishment listening to Jemma talk enthusiastically about what she loved doing, but he needed to keep himself from going into that part of his brain again, the part which allowed him to think about Jemma for hours, that let him be consumed by her and how incredible she was. At the end of the tour of the BioChem lab Jemma was looking happier than Fitz had seen her in weeks.

“Well Dr Simmons, if you ever fancy a change in location, I’m sure we’d be more than happy to have you here in our lab. I’m sure you could do some wonderful things with our facilities.” Dr Weaver smiled as they approached the entrance.

“T-thank you very much.” Jemma spluttered, turning rather red.

“But at the moment I’m happy where I am, but if that ever changes…”

“You know where to find me. It shouldn’t be too hard with your fiancé already working with us.” Dr Weaver grinned, looking from Jemma to Fitz.

“N-no.” Fitz immediately spluttered.

“Fitz is just a friend. My fiancé is a lawyer, so hopefully you’ll never need use of him.” Jemma explained calmly, though her face was telling a rather different story. 

“Oh I apologise, I just saw the ring and assumed… Please forgive me that was rather unprofessional of me.” Dr Weaver rushed most apologetically.

“It’s alright!” Jemma assured.

“It isn’t exactly the first time it’s happened today, so don’t worry about it please Dr Weaver.”

Weaver smiled at them apologetically again before showing them out, shaking Jemma’s hand and reaffirming her offer, should Jemma ever be interested.

“I-I should get you back to the security desk. They were a bit scary about it only being an hour, and I wouldn’t like to think what they’d do if we went over it.” Fitz stuttered as the doors closed behind them.

“Yes, yes of course. Wouldn’t want to evoke the wrath of the big scary men in dark suits, now would we?” Jemma chirped, trying to ignore the increasingly awkward tension that was filling the air between them.

They both remained silent on the way down to the security desk, neither wanting to acknowledge what had just happened for the second time in less than an hour. Jemma fidgeted with her hands uncomfortably in the elevator and Fitz stared determinedly at his shoes.

“I suppose it's an easy mistake to make. Twice.” Jemma said eventually, breaking the silence.

Fitz heaved a breathy sigh, a half-hearted attempt at a laugh.

“Twice?”

“Yes well, we’re the same age and we have similar interests and intelligence levels and we get along very well, and maybe the presence of my ring could perhaps lead people to think that we were together. It’s not the most absurd assumption in the world.” Jemma rambled.

Fitz looked up at her, that look on his face again.

“Jemma I-“ He started.

The elevator began to slow as soon as he spoke, the doors opening and a rush of people making their way in beside them, pushing Jemma and Fitz to opposite corners of the elevator. Fitz let out a long sigh. This was a good thing. The universe was telling him that he should stay quiet and not say anything. Nothing could ever happen. They both remained silent until Fitz had led Jemma outside after her security debrief.

“I hope that we’re okay after, you know, all that.” Jemma blurted as soon as they were outside.

Fitz looked almost taken aback.

“W-what? Of course!” Fitz insisted without a second of hesitation.

Jemma smiled and suddenly all the awkwardness of the last ten minutes fell away.

“Good! I’m glad. I wouldn’t want what Hunter and Dr Weaver said to ruin what was otherwise a pretty perfect afternoon.”

Fitz smiled shyly and began to play nervously with his hands.

“Perfect you say?” He grinned.

“Y-yes, I mean for an hour I got to poke about one of the most high tech labs in the world, and all but got a job offer from Weaver. The company wasn’t too bad either. Thank you Fitz, really. I know you keep insisting that it was really nothing, but from what Hunter said, and a couple of things Weaver let slip, it mustn’t have been easy to get me in here, and you did that for me.” Jemma said, her face going slightly pink.

“You-you didn’t need to do that, and I just wanted to say thank you. I feel oddly calmer about everything now.” Jemma half laughed.

“I’m glad.” Fitz mumbled, not looking at her.

“You really are one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met Fitz. I’m so happy to have met you.” Jemma said quietly.

Fitz’s heart leapt at her words, before his voice of reason butted in, reminding him that she probably meant as a friend. But still no one had ever said anything like that to him before, and he wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

“T-thanks.” He eventually spluttered.

“I think you’re pretty wonderful too. A wonderful friend I mean.” He affirmed, not looking Jemma in the eye.

Before she was even aware of what she was doing, Jemma had rushed to Fitz’s side and was placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you.” She said softly, stepping back from him.

“I should probably get going. Will will wonder where I’ve got to.” Jemma smiled as she backed away.

Fitz’s heart plummeted at the mention of Will’s name.

“O-of course.” Fitz stammered.

“I’ll see you next week Fitz! And please let me know how you’re getting on with the D.W.A.R.V.E.S.!”

“I will, I’ll see you next week Jemma.”

Jemma shot him one last smile, which he returned, and suddenly she was gone, lost in the sea of people all heading home after a long day of work. Fitz sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets before turning on his heel and heading back inside to pack up his things for the evening. Jemma was right, it had been a wonderful day, he thought to himself as the elevator whizzed him up to his lab again. He allowed the smile that came with this though to penetrate itself onto his features, letting himself have this small moment of happiness untainted by any outside sources.

The next day, Fitz found himself at his mother’s shop, having received a phone call earlier in the afternoon about the computer doing something weird. It was incredible really, he had a PhD in electrical engineering and yet he could not figure out what in the hell his mother had done to her own computer to make it completely shut down the way it had. He was in the middle of unscrewing the casing off of the unit itself, to check for internal damages, when Leanna’s voice floated over from the other side of the shop, where she was wrestling a new dress onto a mannequin.

“So, how did the big tour go yesterday? Did Jemma enjoy herself?” Leanna asked, a note of motherly concern in her voice.

Fitz really couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread across his face at the sound of Jemma’s name.

“It went really well, yeah! Really well! Showed her some of my stuff, well some of the stuff that we’ve been working on together for the last wee while really, introduced her to the head of the BioChem department, Dr Weaver, she gave us a tour around their bit and yeah, Jemma had a great time. Basically got a job offer and all, which I half expected from Weaver anyway, after I’d talked to her about giving a tour of the department and telling her a bit about Jemma anyway.” Fitz rambled happily as he pulled the casing off of the computer unit.

“That’s wonderful! You and Jemma have become such good _friends_ it would be nice to work beside her wouldn’t it?” Leanna asked, trying to sound casual.

Leanna had noticed a marked difference in her son over the past few months, he was so much happier. At first, she had suspected that it was the new job, finally getting his hands into some proper work, but then she had realised just how much he talked about one Jemma Simmons. She had hoped that it all might just blow over but as the months went on, and it hadn’t eased up, the look on her son’s face every time the poor girl’s name was even mentioned just getting more and more hopeless, Leanna resolved to say something, to warn him at least.

“Yeah it would be nice to work next to her, but uh, she told Weaver no. She’s barely been at her lab for six months and she likes it there, so I suppose it makes sense.” Fitz said, not doing very well at keeping the tone of disappointment from his voice.

Leanna made her way over to her son, and placed her hand gently on his, stopping him in his tracks.

“Please be careful there my boy. Jemma’s engaged. In three months, she’ll be married to someone else and I couldn’t bear to see you breaking your heart over something that’s next to impossible.” Leanna said softly.

Fitz just stared at her.

“I don’t know what you mean mum.” He said, taking back his hand and looking back down at the computer unit. 

“Leopold James Fitz don’t you dare lie to your mother. I see the way you look at her when she comes in, the way you talk about her all the time. I just, I need you to be realistic here Leo, and please please please don’t do anything stupid for gods sake, that is if you haven’t already.”

“I haven’t _done_ anything mum. I’m well aware that she’s engaged. I’m very good at reminding myself about that thank you very much.”

Leanna just looked at her son, a softly sad expression on her face.

“She is a wonderful girl, beautiful, intelligent, I see why you like her, but I just want you to be realistic here Leo. I know that you probably like her a whole lot more than you’re letting on, I know what you’re like, but just be careful, and don’t let your emotions run away with you.” Leanna cautioned.

“I’m a big boy Mum. I won’t do anything stupid. Jemma, she’s in love with her fiancé, and I’m just her friend. She doesn’t see me like that, which is fine, it just isn’t a whole lot of fun for me.” Fitz grumbled.

Without thinking, Leanna pulled him into a hug.

“Muuum.” Fitz grumbled.

Leanna let him go, the sad look on her face more pronounced.

“Like I said, I’m a big boy, I’ll get over it.” Fitz said quietly, straightening himself out.

Giving herself a shake, Leanna took a step back from her son and tried to put a more neutral expression on her face.

“Good, now if you’ll please use that big brain of yours to fix my computer, I’ll say no more about it.” She said curtly, turning around, determined to get back to fixing her window display.

Fitz watched her wander back to the still half-dressed mannequin, before trying to turn his focus onto the computer before him, but it was no use. A heavy, sinking feeling was running through his veins, like lead. It was time to start moving on, keep telling himself that they were better as friends anyway, anything else, anything more would just ruin the wonderful partnership they’d created between them over the last few months. But Fitz couldn’t stop the small part of him that spurred him on, that fuelled him to be a good engineer, an innovator, the part of him that was always asking ‘what if’, and coming up with endless scenarios and scenes. It usually spun out ideas for gadgets and inventions, of things to make the world an easier and better place, but for a while now it had just been reeling off scenes of himself and Jemma. Some were what you might consider platonic, friendly situations, going out to eat, watching a film together and then there were some that were definitely not platonic and made Fitz feel rather hot and unable to look anyone in the eye for a while. The ones that came to him the most however, the ones he found himself going over and over in his head were the most simple ones of all. Jemma standing cooking dinner and he comes over and wraps his arms around her, kissing her softly. Waking up, Jemma in his arms, pressing a gentle kiss on her forehead, revelling in the soft, warm bed covers and the strands of warm yellow light peeking out through the curtains. There had been more, a few focused on her in that white dress, some were so beautifully domestic that Fitz could hardly even admit to himself that he’d had them. That was going to be the hardest part to shut down, to stop, he thought. How on earth was he supposed to stop loving Jemma Simmons?

Two more months went by, and Fitz was getting better at shutting these thoughts down. Part of him felt like he was building a not very structurally sound wall around his heart, one look, one word of acknowledgement, of a desire for something more, would knock it right over. He hadn’t been planning on being at the shop during her final fitting, but somehow his feet had taken over from the sense in his brain, knowing that this would be the last time to see her in that wonderful white dress, probably one of the last times he would see her before she got married next month, and he just, he wanted to. It was as simple as that. He wanted to see her, talk to her, enjoy her company. That wasn’t a crime was it, he’d reasoned with himself. Jemma came in and talked happily with him that afternoon, whilst they waited for Leanna to finish fiddling around with everything in the dressing room.

“I’ve been meaning to text you, I got good news yesterday!” Fitz said conversationally.

Jemma looked intrigued.

“The patent for the D.W.A.R.V.E.S got approved and they go into production next week!” He smiled.

“Oh Fitz! That’s wonderful news! Your first big project! I’m so happy for you!” Jemma exclaimed, throwing her arms around him in a big hug.

“Thank you.” He mumbled into her shoulder.

“Although partial credit should really be going to you. You helped me so much with them, I really should be giving you some kind of commission from the patent.” He said bashfully, stepping back from the hug.

“Oh Fitz that’s nonsense! It’s your work, your project! I couldn’t and I wouldn’t take anything from you. Working on that project with you, well it was fun and I would feel wrong gaining from it like that. Anyway, getting to spend time with you was reward enough for me. You, you know how highly I think of you.” Jemma finished, her voice soft and her eyes not quite meeting his.

Though he fought hard against it, Fitz’s heart leap at her words. God he was in love with her. No matter how much he tried to fight it or tell himself that it was completely and utterly useless, he was past the point of help. And then he remembered that she was here to pick up her wedding dress, so she could marry another man and it felt like someone was stabbing a blunt knife into his chest. He knew he was wearing that stupidly heartsick look on his face but he really couldn’t care less at this point.

“So my dear! Are you ready?” Leanna Fitz’s voice pierced the air around them like a bullet.

Fitz was suddenly aware of how close he and Jemma were standing together, and he leapt away from her as if she were some kind of venomous snake, about to strike. Jemma did likewise, whipping her head around to look at Leanna so quickly she wondered how she didn’t give herself whiplash.

“Ye-yes! I’m ready!” she smiled a little too brightly.

“Excellent! Right then, let’s get you all sorted!” Leanna exclaimed, gesturing towards the dressing rooms.

She shot a look over her shoulder at Fitz as Jemma walked in front of her, one that Fitz had been on the receiving end of many times before, one that in its most simple translation essentially read as ‘No’. It took a few minutes for Jemma to reappear again, Fitz kicking himself internally for remembering his own struggle with the many buttons at the back of Jemma’s dress and the thoughts that he had had whilst his fingers had been on them. Finally, Leanna drew the curtain back and Jemma emerged, and Fitz felt as if every single particle of air had been stolen from his lungs. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He glanced at his mum and saw that her eyes were misty, and he grinned. He’d expected that, Mum always cried at a bride’s final fitting. His eyes flitted back to Jemma, who had now hopped up onto the little podium in front of the large mirror, Leanna fussing with the hem of her dress through her teary eyes. She was smiling, running her hands over her skirt, smoothing out the non-existent imperfections, but the look in her eyes wasn’t quite matching the rest of her face, Fitz noticed. They seemed, sad, resigned almost. Fitz had spent enough time in this shop, had observed enough final dress fittings to know that this was not the expression of a bride excitedly anticipating her wedding day. Much to his own horror, a jolt of hope ran through Fitz’s veins. Immediately he felt ashamed of himself. This was not the time or the place for his own feelings about Jemma to intrude on.

“You look beautiful Jemma dear.” Leanna gushed, now openly weeping, pulling a tissue from her pocket and dabbing at her eyes.

“Thank you.” Jemma smiled absently, still twitching with her skirt.

“Your poor fiancé isn’t going to know what’s hit him when you walk down the aisle.” Leanna choked out, still wiping the tears away from her eyes.

Jemma let out a half-hearted laugh, but Leanna was still too busy fussing to notice. Jemma swayed herself from side to side for a moment, watching the dress swish around her, watching her shoes appear out from the beautiful material. The dress was beautiful and fit like a glove, Leanna’s favourite seamstress had truly done an excellent job, but Jemma couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of what felt like melancholy that had washed over her when she’d looked at herself in the mirror. The traitorous voice at the back of her head was prodding her, encouraging her to acknowledge the reason why she was feeling this way, but Jemma refused. She was getting married in three weeks and that would be the end of it. Instead she rationalised it by telling herself she was just sad because this was probably going to be the last time she saw Leanna for a while. Jemma really had grown fond of the little woman over the past five months, her happy, kind and mother hen like nature had endeared itself onto Jemma’s heart and she knew she wouldn’t forget her any time soon. Jemma gave herself another once over, before letting out a small sigh and turning to Leanna.

“Well, I think it’s perfect Leanna. Thank you so much for all of your help, I really couldn’t have done it without your help. You really have been so wonderful.” Jemma said, carefully making her way off of the pedestal.

Just like her son’s, the tops of Leanna’s ears went pink.

“It had been my pleasure helping you Jemma dear and I promise you from the bottom of my heart that I don’t say that to everyone. Truly, it has been a delight.” Leanna gushed.

It was now that Jemma felt her own eyes going misty and fought back the tears as Leanna led her back into the fitting room one last time. Ten minutes later she found herself standing by the front desk, a large garment bag in her hands.

“I promise I’ll send lots of pictures. Fitz can show them to you. Thanks again so much for all your help.” Jemma smiled at the two Fitz’s standing before her.

“Like I said, it has been absolutely my pleasure my dear.” Leanna assured.

“I’ll see you on Wednesday Fitz.”

“Y-yeah, I’ll see you then, Jemma.”

The bell on the door tinkled as Jemma pushed it open, and Fitz watched it swing shut again, his stomach dropping to the floor as it hit the threshold. Beside him, his mother let out a long and wistful sigh.

“I’m always sad to see a bride go, but in this case, I’m quite happy too. You know when she came in here she had no clue what she wanted, said she’d tried on about a million dresses, which unnerved me, you know. I’ve never once met a bride who’s had trouble like that finding a dress who actually went on to get married. There was always something else going on in the background, she wasn’t getting married for the right reasons, the man wasn’t really right, things like that, but I’m glad that Jemma was the very first to buck the trend. Such a lovely young lady.” Leanna mused.

Meanwhile Fitz was standing next to her, his face almost blue for not breathing.

“W-w-what did you say?” Fitz spluttered out, his face returning to a somewhat normal looking colour.

“I said, until Jemma I’ve never met a bride who’d had such a fuss finding a dress like she did, cause usually it meant that there was something else going on.” Leanna said absently.

The spark of hope that had ran through Fitz’s veins earlier had been ignited by his mother’s words, and he rushed into the back room and grabbed his jacket and ran for the door.

“Leo, what are you doing?” Leanna asked confusedly, as her son sped past her, stuffing his arms into his jacket sleeves.

“I’m sorry Mum, I know I promised, but, but I just can’t. I have to tell her.”

“I thought you were getting over it Leo, I wouldn’t have said, I didn’t mean… Leo no!” Leanna cried.

“I’m in love with her Mum! I don’t care if she slaps me or tells me no or shoves me to the side, keeping it to myself is killing me. I feel like I’m telling the worlds biggest lie on a daily basis. I’m sorry Mum.”

Without looking back, Fitz bolted out of the door of the shop, sending the poor bell crashing, and ran down the street, his eyes scanning for that familiar outline. The street was far from crowded, so he found her in seconds, rushing after her. He caught up to her, catching her gently by the crook of her elbow. She turned around and looked at him in surprise.

“Jemma.” He breathed.

“I’m sorry but I just, I can’t do it anymore.”

“Do what Fitz?” Jemma asked, her eyes wide with concern.

Fitz’s eyes flitted from her eyes to her lips, before deciding to throw every single bit of caution to the wind. He caught her gently by the waist, and pressed his lips against hers for just a moment before pushing back again.

“I’m in love with you, Jemma. And I know you’re engaged, and I know you’re getting married in three weeks, but I just, I had to tell you. I just, couldn’t keep it from you anymore. I think I loved you from the second I first saw you, I couldn’t help it, you are so beautiful and amazing and brilliant. Over these last few months, Jemma, you’ve become one of my closest friends, my best friend really, and I-I couldn’t let you go and get married without letting you know how I feel. I have absolutely no expectations from you, in fact I’m surprised you’ve let me ramble on this long without giving me a slap. I just, I know you only see me as a friend, but Jemma, you’re so much more than that.”

“Fitz.” Jemma breathed.

“I’m getting married in three weeks.”

“I know.”

“I-I never thought… I mean I never wanted to think…” Jemma started.

Fitz’s face fell like a ton of bricks.

“It’s fine Jemma. You don’t have to say anything. I knew this was doomed. I just, I couldn’t lie to you anymore. I’m sorry.”

Before she had the chance to respond Fitz had turned around and had started walking away. Jemma brought her hands up to her lips, thinking about the press of his lips against hers, and without thinking ran after him. She caught him with her free hand, pulling him back to her, and crashing her lips against hers. If it weren’t for the garment bag in her hand she would have wrapped her arms around him. In that moment everything was gone, except for him. Fitz kissed her back, tentatively at first, but then furiously, his heart soaring in a way he never even could have dreamed of. And then the world stopped, and Jemma realised what she was doing. She pushed away from him, ripping her lips from his, tears streaming suddenly down her face.

“Fitz I—” She stammered.

“I’m sorry, I-I shouldn’t have done that.”

The words lay heavy between them, Jemma staring at the ground, unable to look at him, to acknowledge what had just happened.

“What am I doing?! I’m engaged to Will an-and, oh my god.” She uttered.

“Jemma.”

She forced herself to look up at him and immediately wished that she hadn’t. Tears were falling down his face gently, the expression on his face describable only as utter heartbreak.

“I’m sorry.” She said, looking away from him again.

Jemma turned quickly and all but ran away from Fitz. She didn’t allow herself to stop and think until she was safely home, her head was buzzing, filled with every though, every feeling that she’d been pressing down for the last five months. She was deeply and ridiculously in love with someone who wasn’t her fiancé. His lips against hers had been better than any other feeling she’d ever experienced in her lifetime. But she was getting married in three weeks. Everything was arranged, everything was paid for, the flowers, the cake, the honeymoon in Bali, the dress. The dress. Jemma suddenly realised she was still holding it, and threw the garment bag onto the bed, collapsing down beside it, tears falling down her face with such intensity as she had never experienced before in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say it was a lot! I'm sorry I really couldn't help myself with that last minute angst fest. I'm really not giving them an easy time of it in this fic, but would you believe me when I say it's worth it??
> 
> I'll see you next week for the penultimate chapter!
> 
> Skye :)


	3. The Perfect Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the day of Jemma and Will’s wedding and Jemma has never felt so tense before in her life. Can she forget Fitz’s declaration of love for her, and marry Will or will she finally realise what she’s known all along??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s the penultimate chapter! Which is rather ironic considering I’m posting this the penultimate week of AoS, which, I’M NOT THINKING ABOUT IT. I’m going to put the big blarey sirens on now, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A DEPICTION OF A PANIC ATTACK. Please be aware of that before you dive in, look after yourself and your mental health please. If you don’t want to read this chapter for that reason but you still want to know what happens, please send me a message and I can send you a chapter summary or an edited version of the chapter, whatever you lovelies want, I will do it! Of course it is important to have these depictions in our media but also if you don’t want to consume them because of your own mental health circumstances that is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FINE, your choices and your needs are valid and I would be the last person to want to impose on that. Anyway, I seem to have yabbered on for long enough so please, carry on, read the lovely chapter and enjoy!

With a week left until the wedding, Jemma was convinced she had never been so stressed in her life. There was a million and one things that needed to get done, and yet all Jemma could think about was Fitz. He’d sent a litany of text messages that night, apologising for his behaviour, but since then it had been radio silent. She’d managed to make up an excuse for not going to her usual Wednesday meetings with him, citing wedding prep to anyone who asked. Will took this answer fine, no questions asked, in fact he’d looked rather pleased, but Daisy, Jemma knew that Daisy knew that something was up.

“You haven’t missed a single Wednesday with him in almost six months! If you just missed one week, I wouldn’t be asking you about it at all, but the fact that you actively cancelled two, I am officially calling bullshit. You’ve been acting like a weirdo ever since you picked up your wedding dress, you practically flinch every time someone says Fitz’s name, I know something is up! Jemma just please talk to me.” Daisy said, tossing aside the bag of sugared almonds she was supposed to be bundling up.

Jemma just shook her head, not looking at Daisy as she played with the drawstring on the bag she was supposed to be filling. Drawstrings were far more practical, more reasonable than tying little bits of ribbon around hundreds and hundreds of bags, Jemma had reasoned.

“There’s nothing to talk about!” Jemma insisted.

“If I’m acting off its because my wedding is in less than five days and I have a report due at work in two days which _has_ to get handed in before I go off on leave, so if I seem a little bit off or stressed to you that’s probably why!” She practically yelled, throwing the little bag down.

Daisy looked taken aback, but also unconvinced by Jemma’s outburst.

“Jemma, I’ve known you for what, five years now? I know what you get like when you’re stressed, and this isn’t it. You’re sad, with a good helping of stress heaped on there, and I think it has _something_ to do with Fitz. You haven’t been able to shut up about him for the last six months and suddenly over the past two weeks, you’ve been acting weird and you haven’t so much as mentioned his name since then. I know I’m not exactly sherlock, but I can put two and two together. I hate seeing you like this Jemma. You don’t have to deal with whatever is going on with you by yourself. I’m here. Please, let me help.” Daisy pleaded softly.

Against her own volition, large, weighty tears began to fill up in Jemma’s eyes at Daisy’s words. They rolled thickly down her face, and before she was even aware of her moving, she felt Daisy’s arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Oh Jemma.” Daisy murmured as Jemma began to sob into her shoulder.

It felt as if she was letting everything, every emotion, every thought, every feeling she’d been pushing back over the last six months, suddenly come bursting forward all at once, and she was releasing them all into the safety of Daisy’s shoulder. Jemma cried until she felt like she had no more tears left in her body, and even then, she still shook, her emotions still overwhelming her like a burst dam. It took a while for her to calm down enough to regain her ability to speak, but Daisy stayed with her, helping her breathe and get herself to a point where she felt calm enough to explain.

“I went to go and pick up my wedding dress. Fitz, Fitz was there.” Jemma managed to breathe out eventually.

Daisy just smiled gently, but knowingly.

“E-everything was fine, the dress fit beautifully, Leanna started crying, which Fitz told me she would.” Jemma laughed, wiping her eyes.

“So I left, with my dress, and, and Fitz came after me. He, he said he was in love with me. And he kissed me and told me all of these things about how he felt and that he didn’t expect anything from me cause he knew I just saw him as a friend, and then, and then…” Jemma stammered, tears somehow springing back into her eyes.

“What Jemma?” Daisy asked softly.

“I did something really bad Daisy.”

Jemma took a big shuddering breath in and back out again, her eyes trained on the ground, tears dripping steadily down her face.

“I kissed him back Daisy. I-I was so confused, and I began wittering on about being engaged to Will and his face was just unbearable and then he turned around and began to walk away and I just, I couldn’t let him go. I just- I couldn’t. I-I went after him, and I-I pulled him back and just kissed him. Because I wanted to. And then I remembered everything and I apologised and ran off.” Jemma managed to get out through her tears.

“It was the most selfish thing I’ve ever done in my life. I hurt him. I hurt him so badly.” She sobbed.

Daisy stared at her.

“Who? Will? Did you tell him?!”

Jemma shook her head.

“Not Will. Fitz. I hurt him. I could see it in his face. I gave him hope for something that could never happen.”

“Why not Jemma? It’s not too late, you can call off the wedding!” Daisy exclaimed.

“But I can’t. Everything’s arranged, everyone’s expecting it. We’ve spent so much time and money, I just- I can’t. I would kill Will if I called it off. It would be so selfish of me.” Jemma sobbed.

“It’s not selfish to do something that will make you happy.”

“That’s the very definition of selfish Daisy!”

“Just, answer me this: Are you in love with Fitz? If there was no Will, if there was no wedding, no expectations from anyone, would you go after him?” Daisy asked after a pause.

Jemma took a moment and tried to imagine that world, that life. A life with Fitz by her side. A life with Will by her side. Her heart wrenched at the comparison. She knew which one she wanted, which one her heart ached for. But of course, she would want the one she couldn’t have, the one that was doomed from the second they’d clapped eyes on each other.

“I can’t answer that.” Jemma struggled out, shaking her head lightly.

“If you love Fitz, then what’s the point in marrying another man? What’s the point of dooming three people to misery Jemma? Sometimes we just have to do something for the sake of our own happiness.”

Jemma felt as if her insides were pulling in opposite directions, tearing themselves apart. It was all just too much. It was as if she was feeling too much, more than any one person could possibly endure. She managed to gather herself together a bit more, though her insides still felt as if they were on fire.

“I promised Will that I would marry him. I’m not going to break that promise.” Jemma said with a kind of sad resolve.

“Jemma, you know I love you, and I would support you in anything that you do, but I think that you’re making a mistake.” Daisy gently insisted.

“I have to go through with this Daisy. I just have to, I can’t back out, not now.” Jemma whispered, her voice barely audible, her eyes somehow still swimming with tears.

Daisy just gazed at her friend, frustrated, but mostly sad. It wasn’t fair that Jemma felt like this. But she knew Jemma, and she knew that when she had set her mind on something that she would never back down. Most of the time it was a good thing, but as Jemma sat in front of her, wiping the tears off of her very red and blotchy face as she picked up a small satiny bag and began to frustratedly stuff sugared almonds into it again, Daisy couldn’t help but wonder if it was about to cause her best friend to make the biggest mistake of her life.

The morning of the wedding dawned crisp and bright. When she had started her wedding planning, Jemma had made a list of factors, had consulted weather charts from the last three years and had statistically calculated the weekend that would be the most ideal in terms of temperature, wind speed and humidity, for her wedding, and today was that day. All of her planning had paid off, it was set to be a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, not too hot but with a slight breeze in the air. Jemma hadn’t needed to wake up that morning, because she hadn’t slept a wink that night. Putting it down to nerves, she had watched the light change through the crack in the curtains in Daisy and Lincoln’s guest room, watching the light slowly brighten and shine the most wonderful shades of pink and gold. In less than twelve hours she was going to be Mrs Will Daniels. Her stomach lurched unpleasantly at the thought. This isn’t how you should feel the morning of your wedding, the traitorous voice at the back of her head chirped. For once she agreed with it. Shouldn’t she feel more excited than this, happier than this? It felt as though she was facing her execution day, not her wedding day. Jemma twisted the bed covers in her hands, trying fruitlessly to make herself feel as she ought to. The strip of light shining across the room was pure yellow by the time she heard a small rap on the door, and saw Daisy poke her head in the door.

“Morning.” She smiled half-heartedly.

“Morning.” Jemma tried to smile back.

“Are you ready for today?” Daisy asked quietly, sliding into the room and placing herself on the end of the bed.

“Is anybody ever really ready for their wedding day?” Jemma laughed weakly.

Daisy just looked at her, a worried look knit into her brow.

“Jemma.” She uttered.

“It’s not too late. You can still back out. Anything you need me to do and I’ll do it.”

Jemma shook her head, and maintained her painted on smile.

“If you could make breakfast, that would be lovely. I’m going to take a shower. The hairdresser will be here soon.” Jemma replied almost absently, as she threw the bed covers off and swung her feet round to the floor.

“Jemma.” Daisy protested, catching her by the elbow as she passed, forcing her to look at her.

Jemma wrenched her arm away from her.

“Daisy no. I’m getting married today. No ifs or buts.”

“Fine.” Daisy huffed.

“But if you think that I’m not gonna start on the mimosas while you’re in the shower you got another thing coming!” Daisy yelled after Jemma’s retreating figure.

The morning passed in a flurry of people. Hairdressers and makeup artists came and went, both of the mother’s arrived, beaming with their eyes already full of tears. Jemma’s other bridesmaid in the shape of Will’s sister arrived, who bounced excitedly in her seat, much to the hairdressers frustration. Throughout all this Jemma just kept pushing a smile to the surface of her face, twisted her mimosa glass nervously in her hands as the world seemed to fuss around her. She barely even noticed what was happening really, paying no attention as the hairdresser curled and pinned her hair, as she was told to hold still whilst someone glued eyelashes to her face. Her head felt cloudy, like there was someone in there slowly winding up a rubber band, and it was getting more and more stretched out as time went on. She didn’t like to think what she would do when it snapped, but at the same time, she knew exactly what would happen. Suddenly, she found herself being shepherded out of the apartment by her mother, and into a waiting car, the garment bag which held her dress clutched in her left hand. They arrived at the venue and were fussed into the bridal suite. Jemma was hardly aware of someone taking her dress from her, and the next thing she knew, she was sat on some cushy chaise lounge staring at her dress were someone had hung it up neatly against some dark stained wood wardrobe. It really was beautiful, the most beautiful thing that she owned really. The crank in her head was now working overtime, though she was doing her level best to ignore it. She couldn’t marry Will in that dress. She couldn’t. She could feel the pressure building in her head and bit her lip as her chest began to tighten and she knew everything was about to snap. She needed to get out.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Jemma announced to the room at large, jumping up from her seat.

“Daisy, come with me?” She added in a polite tone, but her eyes were pleading.

“Yeah, sure of course.”

They shuffled out of the now very quiet room, and across the hall into the ladies bathroom. Jemma was surprised she managed to keep herself together for that long. 

“Jem, are you okay?” Daisy asked as soon as the door shut behind them.

Jemma couldn’t do anything but shake her head.

“I think, I’m, a-about to h-have a panic attack.” Jemma gasped, grasping Daisy by the forearms to keep herself steady as her legs began to shake.

And then the rubber band in her head snapped and Daisy was lowering her to the ground and telling her to breathe. The world spun, and even the simple act of breathing was overwhelming, a vice around her neck making her feel like she was choking. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she felt the grip on her throat easing off, her breathing coming back to normal, and she felt wet around her face. She had been crying.

“Jemma, look at me, hey, its okay.” Daisy said softly to her, her hand running gently up and down her forearm.

Jemma just nodded. She felt exhausted. Slowly, she took back control of her breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth. In through the nose and out through the mouth.

“I can’t get married today Daisy. I can’t marry him.” Jemma shuddered, slumping back onto the bathroom floor.

“That’s alright Jemma. You don’t have to. You don’t have to do anything. I can hop next door and tell everyone and we can jump in a cab, go back to mine and eat ice cream for the rest of the day if that’s what you want.” Daisy smiled gently.

Shaking her head, Jemma pushed herself up and off the floor. As much as that sounded great, there was only one person that Jemma wanted to see right now. She wanted him now more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

“Daisy, can you tell Will that I’m really really sorry.”

“What?”

“Sometimes we just have to do something for the sake of our own happiness, right?” Jemma smiled softly, wiping her eyes, before reaching for her left hand, and twisting off her engagement ring.

“Right.” Daisy replied, understanding, taking the ring from her.

“Thank you, Daisy, for everything.” Jemma murmured quietly as she pulled her into a hug.

“Don’t mention it. Now please, go and get him.”

Jemma nodded, unable to keep away the smile that was now spreading across her face. She darted out of the bathroom, down the stairs and out the front door, ignoring the stares of everyone she passed. Flagging down a taxi, she realised she must look a right state, her face blotchy and streaked with makeup, her hair doing god knows what, but Jemma found that she didn’t really care. For the first time in six months she felt free. She climbed into the back of the taxi, and found that there was only one place that came to mind.

“Fitz’s Bridal shop, South Shield Street please.”

The driver just nodded and pulled out into the busy road. Jemma took the opportunity to glance at her reflection in the cab window and was relieved to find it wasn’t so bad. Whatever mascara and eyeliner the makeup artist had used on her, it must have been indestructible, as neither had budged so much as a centimetre. The shop itself was all the way across town, which gave Jemma plenty of time to talk herself out of this, to go back, to do the sensible thing, like she always did. That desire never kicked in. She felt oddly at peace as the cab sailed through the city streets. It felt good, doing the right thing, instead of the expected thing for the first time in her life. Everyone had expected her to go to Cambridge, then Harvard. Everyone had expected her to get engaged to Will, expected her to marry him. Jemma didn’t want to do the expected anymore. Fitz, Fitz had been so delightfully unexpected. He, in and of himself was unexpected. Jemma had never known anyone who was so wonderfully kind, selfless and so incredibly brilliant and intelligent. Jemma had loved Will, she knew that, but the love she held for Fitz was so much bigger. It felt like comparing a lightbulb to the sun. Both gave out light and heat, but one was so much more powerful than the other, so all encompassing. The cab screeched to a stop, and suddenly nerves bolted through Jemma such as she had never felt before. Eternally grateful that she kept an emergency fifty-dollar note hidden underneath her phone case, she paid the driver and stepped nervously out. The now familiar sound of the bell tinkled as Jemma pushed open the door. Leanna was behind the desk, fussing with something on the computer. She looked up as she heard the little bell and her eyes widened at the sight of the woman before her.

“Jemma?! Dearest, what are you doing here?? You’re supposed to be getting married in, what half an hour?” Leanna exclaimed.

“Small change of plan.” Jemma shrugged.

“Is Fitz here?” She asked softly.

Leanna looked at her knowingly.

“Luckily for you, he’s in the back. I’ll go and get him.” Leanna smiled.

“No need.” A familiar voice sounded from behind her.

Fitz emerged from the back room, his face pale.

“I’m just going to go and find something in the back.” Leanna murmured, sliding behind Fitz and out of sight.

“I heard the bell going, and then, your voice. I had to come and check. Make sure I’m not hearing things, though I’m not unconvinced that I’m not seeing things right now. What are you doing here Jemma?” Fitz asked, his face still ashen and confused looking.

Tentatively Jemma stepped towards him, twisting her hands.

“I uh, was just in the bridal suite at the venue. Someone, I don’t know who to be honest, had hung up my wedding dress and I uh- I was looking at it and I realised the only person I wanted to marry in that dress was you.” Jemma explained, not taking her eyes away from his.

Fitz took a sharp breath in and the look that spread across his face was like the one that Jemma had seen on his features so many times, but times a million. She was in no doubt this time of what that look meant.

“Really?” He asked, not able to keep the smile from his voice.

“Really.”

“Fitz, I’m in love with you, really truly and properly in love with you. I pushed it down and ignored it for so long, b-because of my situation with Will. That day, when I kissed you back, I let go, for just a moment and it was so wonderful and I ruined it and I’m sorry. I should have realised then. But I’m so stubborn. I’ve always done what’s expected of my you see, I like following rules and guidelines, and marrying Will, it was expected, what was meant to happen. But then you came into my life and everything changed. You made it hard to do the expected thing, and I’m-I’m so grateful. How I kept this all suppressed down for so long I don’t know. I love you so much I feel as if I could burst with it! I know it’s only been six months, but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life and I know it sounds unbearably cheesy to say but I feel like you’re the other half of me that I didn’t know I was missing until we met. I-If you tell me no, I will be heartbroken, but after the way I treated you I would understand, but just know that I’m not going to be marrying Will, not now, not ever. I’m so incredibly in love with you Fitz.”

Jemma hardly had time to take a breath before suddenly, amazingly, Fitz was there, and his lips were against hers. Nothing on earth, surely nothing in this galaxy or the next felt as good as Fitz’s arms around her as one hand cradled her face, the soft glide of his lips against hers. This was everything. This was the world and beyond. Even the feel of his hand against her cheek was electric, every bit as good as all those small touches and grazes of before, the feel of his hands against her was more intoxicating than any drink she’d ever consumed.

“God, I love you so much.” Fitz breathed when they finally broke apart.

“You know, the day I met you, I felt something. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I just knew that you were going to be something significant in my life. I just didn’t realise quite how much until today.” Jemma said softly, her hands coming up to wipe away the tears that were now falling gently down Fitz’s face.

“I don’t think that there are words to describe how happy I am that I met you Jemma.” He uttered.

The small, but utterly perfect smile on Fitz’s face was the most breath-taking thing that Jemma had ever seen. She traced her hands across his face, gently outlining his features as she felt the harsh graze of his stubble underneath her fingertips, unable to believe her luck.

“What do we do now? I mean, I think I cancelled my plans for today to be here?” Jemma smiled softly.

Fitz let out a small huff of laughter and reached down and took her hand into his. A warm feeling, starting in her hand travelled all the way up Jemma’s arm at the touch of Fitz’s hand.

“I suppose we should let my mum back into her shop before she comes back out from wherever she’s hiding and starts going on about scaring away customers.” Fitz chuckled.

“We can just go for a walk if you like?” He suggested.

“I’d like that.” Jemma smiled, squeezing his hand.

They left the shop, hand in hand, identical smiles spread across both faces. They wandered aimlessly for a while, just talking, and for a couple of glorious hours, the world became just the two of them, hands intertwined as they found their way into an almost hidden away little park. By the time they’d settled themselves onto a bench, Jemma’s head leaning against Fitz’s shoulder, the sun was beginning to set in the distance, the sun bursting with the most beautiful golden light, the sky aglow with delicate pink stripes. Jemma closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, taking a moment to just revel in where she had found herself, Fitz’s arm around her back, his other hand clasped with hers in his lap. This is what peace feels like, Jemma thought, blinking her eyes open again to gaze up at Fitz’s face. And as quickly and as easily as this peace had come, it was broken by the sound of Jemma’s phone making its presence known from her jeans pocket.

“I’m surprised it’s taken this long to be honest, but I’m sure Daisy has something to do with that.” Jemma sighed as she pulled out her phone.

“Speak of the devil.” Jemma said as she read Daisy’s name on her screen.

“Jemma! And I’m really hoping Fitz too, if not I’m going to come and kick his ass.” Daisy’s voice sounded from the phone in Jemma’s hand.

“I prefer my ass unkicked thank you very much.” Fitz grumbled dryly, but Jemma noticed the smile in his voice as he said it.

Jemma proceeded to hold the phone at a distance from her as Daisy let out the most ear-piercing screech she had ever heard in her entire life.

“Oh my god!!! I’m so happy for you!!” Daisy exclaimed once she’d finished squealing.

“I suppose right now, you’re about the only one.” Jemma grimaced.

“No! Lincoln’s happy for you too!” Daisy protested.

“But yeah, that’s why I was calling, I managed to get everyone to promise to leave you alone until tomorrow.” Daisy explained.

“Really? I was wondering how my phone wasn’t jumping out of my pocket. How is everyone?” Jemma asked tentatively, taking a sideways glance at Fitz, who was now looking more than uncomfortable.

“He took it fine Jemma. He guessed pretty much straight away that you’d gone after Fitz. He said something about noticing a vibe when he picked you up from a dress fitting and then, he said he kind of just figured. It made sense, he said.”

“Please tell him that I will talk to him tomorrow. I feel like I should explain to him first. It’s only fair.”

“Okay but you’re gonna have a good fight with the mothers for that position, I almost had to tackle them both to stop them calling you.” Daisy half laughed.

Jemma let out a huff of laughter. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that Daisy would tackle two grown women to the floor for her, even if it was just to get her twelve hours of silence.

“Thank you Daisy. You really are the best.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m just glad you’re happy. You are happy right?”

“Beyond happy.” Jemma smiled down the phone, her eyes meeting Fitz’s again.

“Good. I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow and don’t forget to use protec-“ Daisy started.

“Goodbye Daisy!” Jemma practically shouted down the phone, her face going red as she slammed the screen to hang up.

Jemma shoved the phone into her lap before burying her head in her hands. She loved Daisy, but sometimes she wondered why she had to be so, straightforward, about things. Huffing one final sigh into her hands, she removed them and turned to look up at Fitz, who, to her surprise, was smiling.

“Remind me why I haven’t met her yet?” he grinned.

“Because she’s far too forward for her own good. Mind you that might not have been a bad thing in this case.”

Fitz chuckled. He took her hand back into his again, and gazed back off into the distance, the sun fairly low in the sky now.

“We should get back, before it gets too dark out.” He murmured.

“Where?”

“My place isn’t far from here, not that I would assume that, I mean of course I wouldn’t that wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me at all, I mean, I mean I-I could walk you to your place, but we couldn’t really cause Will’s probably there and I’m pretty sure he could take me and-“ Fitz rambled.

“Fitz, your place sounds perfect.” Jemma smiled, placing a hand on his cheek.

Visibly relaxing, Fitz stood up and offered her his hand. Jemma took it happily, standing up, Fitz leading the way. Jemma leaned into him as they walked, just allowing herself to enjoy the feeling of him, his physical presence, the sound of his voice as he spoke, the smell of the aftershave he wore. Everything was just him. Tomorrow, tomorrow was going to be a difficult day, filled with a lot of difficult and frustrating conversations, but Jemma found that she didn’t really mind. At the end of it all she would still have Fitz, this wonderful, amazingly brilliant and handsome man, who would happily chat to her about dielectric polarisation as they walked off into the sunset together. Yes, it would all be worth it if she had Fitz by her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did, did I not mention that the last chapter is an epilogue? Mwahahahahahahahahahaaha. I couldn't resist I'm sorry. Anyway, some of you might have seen that I posted something over on Tumblr about not feeling right about posting fic the day of the AoS finale, I don’t know what it is, it just isn’t sitting right with me, so I will be posting the last chapter early. I won’t say when cause 1. I enjoy being evil and 2. who doesn’t like a surprise. I will see you sometime next week for the FINAL chapter before I retreat into a hole and mourn the loss of my beloved AoS. 
> 
> Skye :)


	4. The Perfect Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two years after they first met Jemma and Fitz are finally getting married, and it is set to be the most perfect of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I’m kind of low key cursing myself for not working out that the last chapter of this fic was going to go up in the final week. Like I am already the biggest ball of emotions, this will only add to it. Anyway this is like 3700 words of pure and utter self indulgence. I cannot even say any more, that’s what it is. All I will say is pay attention to the date they get married. I really could not help myself there. Small little details like that in fic just make my life so I naturally like to put them in as often as I possibly can. Anyway, enough rambling on from me, please enjoy the very last chapter!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy it!

**A year and a half later**

It was early. Pale morning light seeped into the room through a small crack in the curtains, falling gracefully across the bed that was perfectly centred against the back wall of the room. Jemma blinked her eyes open and stretched her legs out gently. Glancing at the clock on her bedside table, she noticed just how early it was, much earlier than she would normally get up. On a normal day, she would just close her eyes and go back to sleep until the perky chirrup of her alarm awoke her again, but today was no normal day. Jemma let out a contented sigh and snuggled back down under the covers, her hand resting on Fitz’s chest, feeling it rise and fall as she listened to the drum of his heart against her ear. Jemma shifted her head to look up at his face, which was still blissfully calm in sleep. Even now, two years after they had first met, Jemma still found herself wondering at just how beautiful he was. Smirking to herself, Jemma shifted herself up and started pressing lazy kisses across his jaw. His breathing changed softly before his eyes opened, and Jemma continued her delicate attentions to his jawline.

“Morning.” He grumbled sleepily, a small smile spreading across his face as his eyes blearily

found her.

Fitz hated waking up, Jemma had learned. He would sleep till noon every single day if she let him, but he still managed a smile every single time she woke him up.

“Good morning.” Jemma mumbled against his jaw, her lips curling into a smile in between her kisses.

“Whilst this is a very nice way to wake up, and one which I will be expecting every morning from now on, can I just point out just how early it is?” Fitz smiled sleepily, wrapping his arms lazily around her.

“I know, I just couldn’t resist, not today.” Jemma smiled back, her trail of kisses finally bringing her to his mouth, capturing it with hers in a soft and lazy kiss.

“Hmm, what’s happening today? I can’t seem to remember.” Fitz teased as they broke apart.

Jemma rolled her eyes at him but caught his lips in a kiss anyway.

“Do you think this is unlucky, us being together this morning?” Fitz mused as Jemma snuggled back into his side again.

“Fitz, I left a man at the alter for you, you were there when I bought my wedding dress, you FITTED my wedding dress, I think we’ve crossed off every single wedding taboo in the book. Us spending the night together the day before our wedding isn’t exactly a federal crime. Besides, it’s not like all of that has done us any harm before now.” Jemma scoffed in reply.

“I guess you’re right.” He conceded easily.

“Now, now that we’re both quite awake we should probably do something to fill the time, don’t you think?” Fitz said with a suggestive smile.

“Oh yes I’m sure we can think of something we could do to fill the time.” Jemma grinned, leaning up towards him again.

Much to her surprise, Fitz leaned back and away from her, coming to rest against the pillows behind them.

“So what do you want to do first? We could do the dishes from last night, or the rug under the couch in the really does need hoovered, or it really has been too long since we gave the bathroom a good clea-“

Jemma couldn’t help but laugh. Every time she thought she couldn’t love Fitz more than she already did; she was always delightfully proved wrong. It was like her heart expanded every time he spoke or smiled, or did most things really. Shutting him up with a kiss, one of her favourite ways to silence him when he began to tease her, Fitz was more than happy to stop his list.

“I mean, if you really want to go and clean the bathroom, be my guest. I guess I’ll just stay here in bed all by my very self.” Jemma smiled as they pulled apart.

“Well I can’t very well leave you on your own, now can I? Not on the morning of your wedding.” He grinned in response, capturing her lips with his own again.

The next time they woke up, they were wrapped together, Jemma’s annoyingly cheerful alarm waking them both at the same time. They allowed themselves a few minutes to just bask in the warmth and the comfort of the bed covers, and of course, each other’s arms, before regrettably throwing the covers off and getting up. Jemma fidgeted happily with her engagement ring as she and Fitz danced around each other in the kitchen as they made breakfast. She tried not to compare her last engagement with her current one, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. This ring was much less fussy than the last one, just a simple band and a simple diamond. He’d never said it, but Jemma suspected that Fitz had made it himself. Even the proposals themselves had been wildly different. Will had pulled out all the bells and whistles to surprise her in front of her friends and family at her graduation party, there had been fairy lights and confetti, all ending with him down on one knee in front of a large crowd of people. In retrospect, Jemma allowed herself to admit that she’d partly only accepted because of how awful it would have been to say no in front of such a crowd, although she wasn’t sure it would have been in the same league as leaving a man at the alter and she’d managed that just fine. She couldn’t think about Fitz’s proposal without smiling. He’d been so nervous, he’d been almost comically fidgety throughout the wonderful dinner he had made for them. He’d gotten down on one knee after dessert, smiling nervously as he took her hand in his.

“Jemma, I-uh, I know that in the grand scheme of things, we haven’t been seeing each other for that long, but uh, I have loved you since the moment we met. I know we didn’t get off to the most traditional of beginnings, but it hasn’t held us back one bit, in fact I think if anything it made us stronger and I just-I know that together we can do anything, t-together we’re unstoppable. I don’t want to spend another day without you by my side Jemma. So, Jemma Simmons, will you marry me?”

His voice had shaken throughout his speech, but it was the most beautiful, most endearing, most wonderful experience of Jemma’s life. She’d immediately flung herself at him, repeating ‘yes’ over and over again through the multitude of kisses she’d littered his face with. It was perfect. Seven months had passed since that day and not a single day had passed when Jemma hadn’t thought about it. She couldn’t wait to be married to him, to spend the rest of her life with Fitz. 

They’d decided to have a small wedding, just family and close friends. Jemma had organised a big wedding before and as much as it was going to be beautiful and Jemma had stressed over every little detail, it wasn’t _her._ The big white wedding with two hundred guests and canopies and the big ballroom, it was what had been expected of her, but she had since learned that the expected thing was not always the right thing. This time there was no makeup artist and no hairstylist. Instead, Daisy turned up on their doorstep at eleven, beaming, her arms filled with bags of makeup and various hairstyling tools, her bridesmaid dress clutched somehow under her arm. She shooed Fitz out with a smile, Jemma managing to catch one more kiss before Daisy practically threw his suit bag at him and shoved him out the door. They chatted happily as Daisy fussed endlessly over Jemma’s hair and makeup.

“I hate to bring it up Jem, but you’re so much happier this time.” Daisy smiled as she wrapped a strand of hair around her curling iron.

“I know, you’re right. This is how I’m supposed to feel. I mean, Fitz left what, an hour ago and all I can think is that I can’t wait to see him again.” Jemma sighed happily.

“I’m sorry, can we get that on record, Jemma Simmons said that I, Daisy Johnson was right?” Daisy gaped in mock surprise.

Jemma laughed.

“If you weren’t holding that curling iron right now you’d be getting a firm swat against the arm.”

Daisy just laughed and turned her attention back to what she had earlier called, ‘the most important hairstyle of her life.’. At one in the afternoon, Jemma’s parents arrived, just as Daisy was helping Jemma into her dress. Her father got all misty eyed, and her mother fussed, if it was possible, more than Daisy had been.

“You are sure about the dress darling? You don’t think it’s bad luck to wear the same dress you bought for the last time?” Her mother worried for the thousandth time.

“Yes mum. I’m sure. This is my wedding dress. I just bought it for the wrong wedding.” Jemma said absently, running her fingers over the delicate lace on her skirts.

Her mother stayed silent after that, though Jemma noticed she kept eyeing her carefully, and she wondered if her mother thought she was going to act the runaway bride again. You run away from one wedding, Jemma thought as she caught her mother’s eye for the thousandth time that afternoon. Thankfully, soon after it was time to leave, and Jemma was spared from the last of her mothers worrying looks. Jemma couldn’t stop fidgeting the whole car journey there, worrying with the stems of her flowers.

“No need to be worried sweetheart.” Her father had said gently, placing his hands over her busy ones.

“I’m not worried Dad. I’m so excited I feel like I could burst.” Jemma said, looking up at him, unable to keep the smile from her face.

Her father just nodded, tears welling up in his eyes again, and then Jemma felt tears stinging at the edge of her eyes too. She really did feel like she was about to burst, with excitement, with anticipation, with pure and utter happiness. Ever since Fitz had proposed she knew exactly when she’d wanted to get married. There were no calculations, no fussing with weather charts, she just knew. Fitz had pulled a face and said:

“March 9th? Why then?” He’d asked.

“That was the day we first met, the day I came into your mother’s shop for the first time.” Jemma had explained simply.

Fitz’s face had softened, and he had quickly agreed. Jemma smiled as she remembered, staring out of the car window, watching as they left the city behind them. The weather seemed to have got the memo on what day it was, the sun shining through the clouds in the sky, the first touch of a spring warmth filling the air. The car finally pulled to a stop, and Jemma felt like she was about to stop breathing she was so excited as she stepped out, hardly aware of Daisy and her mother fussing about her dress trailing on the ground.

“Are you ready?” Her father asked softly, offering her his arm.

Jemma nodded, and slung her arm into his as they began to walk into the nearby clearing. She’d been ecstatic when they had found this place. It was really Fitz who had found it, if she was being perfectly honest. It was the most beautiful little estate at the edge of the city, but it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. They had a small house in which they could hold the reception, and the best part, was the small clearing they had in which to hold the ceremony, perched right on the edge of the small lake that the estate sat near. Even in these early stages of spring, the place was light and bright and full of the most beautiful lush green foliage. The place had told them that they didn’t normally hold weddings this early in the season, just due to the unpredictable nature of the weather, but after some pleading and some explanations of why they so wanted that particular date, the events manager had conceded. As they drew closer, Jemma could see the lines of chairs set up neatly, creating an aisle for her to walk down, the eager faces of their friends and family craning over to try and see her. There was however only one person who Jemma was searching for, her eyes fixed on the very end of the aisle, where three figures stood. Fitz had insisted on keeping what he was wearing from her a secret, the romantic traditionalist in him trying to keep some part of that particular wedding tradition alive, and so Jemma beamed when she realised that he was wearing a kilt. He was fitted out in the full regalia, the heavy white socks, the shoes, the jacket, everything. Jemma felt a flush fly up her face as she took him in, from the end of the aisle, not realising quite how attractive she would find him in this particular get up. Fitz lifted his head, the music beginning as Daisy practically skipped down the aisle towards them, and Jemma could see the wide smile spread across his face as he saw her. Hunter, Fitz’s best man, looked less pleased, standing behind Fitz in matching tartan dress trousers. Jemma smiled at the sight of him shifting uncomfortably, before shifting her gaze to fix on Fitz as she began to make her way down the aisle. Then, even her father seemed to disappear from her side, the world was her and it was Fitz as she steadily made her way up to him. Jemma felt her father press a kiss to her cheek before letting go of her arm as the aisle finished, and even then, the world was just the two of them. She gave herself a little shake as she felt Fitz’s hand take hers, knowing that very soon she’d have to pay attention to their officiant, and she really didn’t want to have funny stories from the ceremony where she forgot to say her vows or something equally embarrassing.

“Wow, you look stunning.” Fitz breathed, so quietly only she could hear him.

“Wow yourself!” Jemma smiled.

“Ah yes, the kilt. Mum insisted.” He said softly, his eyes flitting over Jemma’s shoulder, where Leanna was sat next to Jemma’s father, already sobbing into a handkerchief.

“Remind me to thank her later. What tartan is it?” Jemma murmured quickly.

Fitz’s cheeks went a little red.

“It’s the uh, Fitzsimmons tartan.” He darted back.

Jemma just stared at him for a second before utterly just beaming at him. Fitz just laughed at the look on her face before the officiant began his speech. He went on for a moment, making a speech about love and commitment and the state of marriage. Jemma was only half listening really, her attention still trained on Fitz, not taking her eyes off him for one single moment. The beautiful mid-afternoon light filtering in through the trees made everything seem almost ethereal.

“And now for the vows, I believe you have written your own.”

The officiants voice snapped Jemma out of her Fitz induced reverie, and she remembered the slip of paper that she’d given Daisy to hold alongside her ring. After a polite fumbling with Daisy, swapping her flowers for her vows, Jemma began.

“Fitz, from the day I first met you, from that very first conversation in your mum’s shop I knew that you were going to be someone significant in my life. What I didn’t know was that you would be my life, my heart, my home. You made me question everything I thought I knew about love, about life, and how I wanted to be, and I am so much better for having known you. I love you more than I think it is possibly to put into words. Every moment with you has been the most wonderful adventure, and I cannot wait for our next one, building a family together. My love for you grows deeper and always will, no matter what the universe throws at us next.”

Jemma couldn’t help the tears that came to her eyes as she finished. She just, she loved him so much. Fitz’s eyes were definitely not dry either, and he reached out and took one of her hands gently into his, rubbing his thumb carefully across the back of her hand.

“Jemma.” Fitz breathed, before realising that, for the sake of the small crowd of people behind them, he should probably speak a little louder.

“I- I have been thinking about what to say, but like you said, words don’t really seem to be enough. I think that you are perfect, and I-uh, I don’t deserve you, Jemma. I am still astounded every single day that you chose me, that you continue to choose me, and I am well aware that I am the luckiest man on any planet.”

A tear fell down Jemma’s face. She couldn’t help it. Pure happiness was coursing through her veins. She got to spend the rest of her life with this wonderful man, nothing on earth, nothing on any planet fathomable, could be better than that. The rest of the ceremony passed like a blur, with Daisy almost dropping Fitz’s ring because she was crying so much, and Fitz glaring at Hunter as he did the whole ‘oh my god I forgot the ring’ shtick.

“And now, by the power vested by me by the State of New York, I am thrilled to announce that you are now husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

They both moved at the same time, tears of absolute and utter joy falling down both faces as they fell together into a soft kiss. Cheers erupted from the crowd behind them, and Jemma was sure she could still hear Leanna crying.

“May I present to you for the very first time, Dr and Dr Fitzsimmons!” The officiant cried happily as they turned to face the cheering crowd.

Jemma reached for Fitz’s hand, and took her flowers back from Daisy, and they made their way happily up the aisle. The rest of the day passed in a whirlwind of pictures and drinks, and greetings of friends and family, the only constant was Fitz by her side, her hand clasped tightly around his. The world fully melted away during their first dance, the world contained just the two of them and nothing was more important than swaying with Fitz, her head on his shoulder as they rocked back and forward together on the dance floor.

They had decided not to go to some fancy hotel suite for their wedding night, instead preferring to spend it in their own apartment, in their own bed. They’d reasoned that they would have plenty of time for fancy hotel rooms on their honeymoon to the Seychelles the following week. Jemma felt happily exhausted as they were driven back to the city, her head falling comfortably on Fitz’s shoulder, their hands still joined on his lap. Jemma yawned as she unlocked the apartment door, and she heard Fitz chuckle behind her, his arms sliding around her waist as she argued with the lock.

“Not going to fall asleep on me on our wedding night are you.” He smiled, pressing a kiss into the crook of her neck.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Jemma smiled back as the lock finally clicked open.

They shuffled inside and as soon as the door was closed, Fitz found himself being pushed back against it, Jemma’s lips pressed urgently against his own.

“Did I mention just how much I love you in this kilt?” Jemma breathed as they broke apart.

“No, but please, go into great detail if you want?” Fitz smirked before capturing her lips with his own again.

His hands urgently flew to her back, and to the buttons that seemed to run the length of Jemma’s entire dress. It was very hard to try and undo these countless little buttons, whilst the absolute heaven of Jemma’s lips were pressed against his own. After a few moments of fumbling Jemma broke away and started to laugh into his shoulder.

“I seem to remember you having a problem with these buttons before.” Jemma smiled mischievously, bringing herself together enough to look up at him.

“Yeah that’s cause I was undressing you and touching you when I had no right to. No right to want to rip the damned dress off and jump you right there in the middle of the shop.” Fitz practically growled.

“I’m sure your mum would have appreciated finding that on the security footage.” Jemma laughed.

“Can we please not discuss my mother right now.” Fitz groaned, littering kisses down her throat as he continued to struggle with the pesky buttons.

“So eager. I seem to remember you having your wicked way with me just this morning.” Jemma teased as Fitz finally released another button.

“Yeah well this morning, I made wonderful love to my fiancée, and now this evening I would love to have my wicked way with my wife.” Fitz growled, fighting the urge to literally rip the dress off of her.

It was a mystery how they ever made it to the bedroom that evening, although Fitz eventually did have to request a time out, and some light in order to finally undo the rest of Jemma’s godforsaken buttons, which made her laugh. As she drifted off to sleep that night, Jemma couldn’t help but think back to two years prior, they day she had met the man whose naked chest she was now lying on. If only she could go back and talk some sense into her past self. But no, Jemma thought, giving herself a little shake. As much as the fallout of running away from her own wedding to go after another man had not been the most fun she’d ever had, she wouldn’t change it for the world, because now, now Fitz was her husband and she got to pass the rest of her life with him by her side and nothing in the observable universe could possibly be better than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I put Fitz in a kilt (the Fitzsimmons tartan is a real think, go for a google!) bc I really could not resist and low key I think we have been robbed of not seeing the wonderful IDC in a kilt. Also yes, tartan dress trousers are a thing here in Scotland and OF COURSE I was going to torture Hunter by putting him in a pair. I my mind Fitz wanted him in a kilt too, but they compromised. Honestly Hunter would hate it and therefore it would be the most entertaining thing in the world. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this fic, I had sosososososososososososososossosoSO much fun writing it, it really is something a little bit different for me, so I can only hope that the fun I had in writing it is reflected in the work itself!


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